We Found Love
by MKAmericanhero
Summary: Follow up to Grace for Weakness. Graduation, weddings, deployments and family all rolled into the next part of this story. You would need to read the first story to really understand this one.
1. Chapter 1

**Here's the sequel and it's set as they are all getting ready to graduate college. I'll do some flashbacks into their college lives but otherwise we will move forward to graduation and wedding stuff. I start my MA program on Monday so updates will probably be slow for a bit but I'll have down time every so often and I'll keep the story moving.**

As she walked down the hallway she couldn't help, but feel an overwhelming sense of being home. Even though it had been four years since she stepped foot in WMHS, Santana walked down her alma mater with the same confidence she had about her when she was a student. Things really hadn't changed at all: the lockers were still dinged up in all the same spots, it stilled smelled like BO and Axe body spray and the classrooms seemed to have been frozen in time. Santana wasn't back in Lima for a trip down memory lane, she was on official business. Graduation time came faster than anyone had expected and it was time for the she and Brittany to say goodbye to undergrad and hello to the real world. She had come home to visit everyone and to invite them to the ceremonies. Brittany wanted to come to school with her but she was doing one last practice before her senior showcase and wouldn't be in town until later that day. Santana paused in front of the choir room and listened as Shue was explaining the lesson to the kids sitting in their chairs clearly not giving two damns about what their teacher was saying.

"Now come on guys, I really think this assignment will help us warm up for the concert in a few weeks." Before he could say anything else Santana stepped into the room, "so now you give yourself a few weeks to prepare instead of three days. Guess things really have changed since we left." Will turned around to see Santana leaning against the door frame, arms crossed and smug grin on her face. He smiled and walked over to his former student, giving her a big hug before leading her into the room. "Guys, pay attention for a minute, this is a former student of mine and she was one of the original members of the club. Say hello to Santana everyone." They all mumbled hello.

"You're the one that was on the news, when the shooting happened, that was you." The kid in the front row pointed out and Santana stood up a little straighter and readjusted her uniform. "That was me."

"Your girlfriend was the one that almost died."

"Nothing gets by you guys. Now not that reliving that nightmare isn't super fun I didn't come back here to talk about what went down that day. I came back to drop of some graduation invites for Mr Shue." Santana reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out two envelopes handing them both to Will, "Brittany's is on May 19th and her showcase is two days before. I'll tell you now that that the showcase means more to her than graduation so if you need to pick which one to attend do that one. Mine is the next weekend, just let me know a few days prior if you're coming and if you are bringing a guest." Will took them both from Santana smiled, "I can't believe you guys are graduating, seems like yesterday you were running around here belting Journey."

"You made do Journey and had to grow up sooner or later, besides it's not we're ever gonna forget you or this place, I mean hell I used my time off to come down here to hand deliver these."

"Well I really do appreciate it; Emma and I will look at our calendar and see what we can do. Care to sit in for a little bit of practice?"

"I should get going, Brittany's plane gets in soon and I need to swing by my parent's house to take care of some wedding prep stuff so I should go…"

"You're getting married?" A different kid, a girl who looked to be about 15 looked stunned. Santana turned to here and waved the ring on her finger in the air, "yep, we have in fact put a ring on it, wedding is being held two weeks after graduation."

"Are you still with her, your girlfriend that got shot that day?" The same girl asked in a quiet voice which made Santana's gaydar go off like mad, don't ask her why it just did. "Sure am, six years and I can finally stop calling her my partner, she'll be my wife and the world can milk a duck if they don't like it." Santana phone started to go off and she looked at the screen before her voice became all business, "Lt. Lopez." Santana paced around the room and was soon in a very heated conversation with the person on the other end. "No sir, I was assured that the orders would be prepared and sent out on graduation day and that gave each commanding officer one month to deal with their PCS. I understand that sir and I would be happy to handle it personally. No sir, I haven't received mine either. Sir, you have my word I will fix this. I know it isn't my job sir, but it needs to get done and done and done quickly and I can see to it that that is exactly what happens. Yes sir. Thank you sir. Goodbye General." Santana hung up the phone and pounded out a fast email before she looked up to see everyone watching her.

"If you want it done right, gotta do it yourself. Anyway Mr. Shue I gotta split and handle this and go pick up Britt Britt, but call me and we'll catch up before I head back home. Bye kids." Santana turned to leave and realized that the message she had written on graduation day was still there, clearly it had been redone a few times over the years, but it was still there. She smiled at Will before putting her hat back on and walking out in the hallway. Just as she turned the corner to leave the building she heard an all too familiar voice. She walked into the classroom and sure as she was standing there holly Holiday was teaching a very captive audience of teens the finer points of sex ed. Santana never understood why they used a banana to demonstrate condom usage, the whole thing grossed her out, but then again so did sex with men so she lucked out.

"See guys, not that difficult to do. Now, any questions before we move onto STD's?" Santana jumped in, "yeah, Ms. Holiday what about dental dams?" Holly didn't even have to turn around to know who was standing in her classroom, but when she did she was surprised. Santana still looked amazing, but PT had toned her muscles in a different way and the uniform she wore made her look mature and professional. "Well you would be the one to ask about lady loving sex, not me sweetie. Now come hug me before I burst." Santana let the blonde woman tackle her in a hug and she hugged her back because, well Holly always would have a special place in her heart.

"You look so grown up and serious."

"I am grown up and my job demands that I at least look serious, but I still let my hair down at home."

"Graduation is coming up soon yeah?"

"Couple of weeks, I have some extra invites to mine and to Brittany's if you are interested." She handed Holly the invites and the blonde looked like it was Christmas come early as she held them against her heart. "I will absolutely be there and the wedding is coming up as well, I RSVP'd and everything, ugh I'm so happy you two finally get your happy ending, or happy beginning as it were."

"It's been a long time coming that's for sure. Listen I have to go salvage a massive issue with everyone's PCS and deployment papers, but we will catch up soon."

"Sounds like you are very important to the Army."

"This is me cleaning up the mess of a Captain who decided not to pay attention to deadlines, but I'd like to think that I serve them well. Anyway, I'll call you when Britt's plane gets in and try not to scar these kids too badly, they are so young."

**Just a short chapter to start off, hopefully you liked it, review and let me know.**


	2. And It Begins

**Sorry for the delay, but I'm back.**

While they were back home in Lima, Santana and Brittany both managed to make the rounds of people who were still in the area. They handed out graduation announcement for the people who had moved around too much and therefore they had no address for. They ultimately, only spent about two days back in their hometown before they both had to head home to New York. All the Glee clubbers had different graduation days which shocked them all. Thankfully, the fact that several of them had gone to the same school made things much easier. The New York graduations were among the first to happen so they all planned out the transportation and decided to make it into a road trip. Everyone who wasn't in NY would drive there, see Quinn, Rachel, Kurt, Brittany and Santana all graduate then they would head off to the one that were outside of NY. Quinn's graduation was first and she somehow managed to get a hold of enough tickets for all the glee club, Shelby, Beth and her own mother. They celebrated by cramming everyone into the apartment that she and Rachel shared with Brittany and regardless of the cramped space they had a fabulous time.

One week later Santana was rushing through her last minute duties on base so that she could run and get ready for Brittany's senior showcase performance. She had her head down and didn't realize that her XO had come into the room. The senior officer smiled to himself to see Santana running around trying to finish an hour's worth of work in 15 minutes, what impressed him is that she was succeeding at the task. He cleared his throat and Santana's head shot up and so did her right hand in order to salute her commanding officer.

"Last minute duty Lopez?"

"Yes sir. Sorry sir, I have a former engagement that I really cannot be tardy for at all."

"So your solution is to do an hour's worth of work in 15 minutes?"

"I make no excuses for my behavior sir."

"What I find interesting is that you are accomplishing your task brilliantly in a fraction of the allotted time. It's impressive."

"Thank you sir."

"What event has you in such a state that you need to rush out of here?"

"My fiancé's senior showcase sir, she graduates in two days and tonight is her last performance and with all due respect sir if I am late at all, I'm pretty sure she'll call off the wedding." The Colonel laughed and patted Santana on the shoulder.

"Well now we can't have that now can we? You're officially dismissed, seeing as your task is completed. So go on, go home change into your uniform and try not to embarrass me too badly." Santana cracked a smile. "Thank you so much Colonel."

"You are wasting precious time Lopez and a word of advice if I may. Pick up flowers on your way, ladies love it when they know you thought about them enough to plan ahead."

"Yes sir. Have a good night sir." Santana grabbed her bag and ran out of the office building as fast as she could. She got back to her room and ran through a fast shower before drying her hair, doing her makeup and getting her uniform on properly. She had about four hours before the performance, but she still had to pick Brittany's grandparents and family up at the airport. She flipped open her cell phone and called Puck.

"LT Puckerman at your service."

"You know it's me dork, now listen I have very little time so write down everything I say got it."

"Got it, shoot."

"Ok, I am calling in an order of flower from the florist near the performance hall. You need to pick them up for me and bring them with you to Britt's show ok."

"Got it, next."

"Call Quinn, tell her I need her to save…" Santana added the number in her head, "ten seats for just family and then the rest of the glee club."

"So all total about 20 or so seats."

"More or less."

"Ok, anything else?"

"Nope."

"Ok I'll take care of this you go grab the family and I'll see at the theater ok?"

"Thanks Puck, I owe you one."

"Not really, but I'll keep it in mind." With that he hung up and Santana called the limo that was taking her to the airport and made sure he was outside the gates ready to go. She made it outside to see her limo and one behind it. She was going to need them both to pick up everyone from the airport. She hopped in the car and the limo took off with the second one trailing behind them. Half way to the airport Santana's phone rang and she saw that it was Liz.

"I'm almost to the airport did you guys just land?"

"Yep, just touched down and we are still making our way to the gate so you still have some time."

"Ok, I have to have the cars park in a specific spot so I'll meet you all in baggage claim and then we will all go to the cars together alright?"

"Sounds lovely dear, see you soon." In the time it took for the limos to park and Santana to get into the baggage claim area, she had called the florist and that was all settled by the time she stepped inside the airport. She stood in baggage claim feeling all eyes on her, because it's not every day you see a soldier in dress blues at the airport looking happy. After about ten minutes she heard her name being called and she could see Brittany's grandparents and at least one of her aunt coming down the stair case. But before they got there she heard a small voice yelling out "Sanny, Sanny" and from a distance she could see Brittany's youngest cousin running toward her at top speed. She smiled and reached down just as Julianna was about to run into her and in doing so scooped the four year old up and hugged her.

"This can't be my Julie-bean. You're far too big to be my precious little cousin."

"No, it's really me, I'm all growed up now." Santana smiled. "I can tell you're getting to big for me to carry you like this monkey." Santana set the four year old down and looked up to see Liz standing nearby. She hugged her and said her hellos and hugged everyone. Victor went with Brittany's uncles to pick up and the bags which left Jane, Eliza and Liz standing there with Santana and Julie. Santana felt a tug at her pants and Julie was looking up at her clearly full of questions. "How come you look fancy?"

"Because tonight is Brittany's big show and we all have to look pretty and because of what I do now, I wear this outfit to places where I have to look pretty or professional."

"Do I get to look pretty too?"

"You always look pretty sweetie, but yes when we swing by the hotel you'll change into a pretty dress so you can come to the show too, ok?" The four year old lost interest after that and asked questions about what actually made the plane fly and eventually the boys came over with the bags and they headed for the limos. They put the bags in one of the cars and then split up so that each car had roughly the same amount of people. The drive to the hotel was short and everyone worked hard to get the bags unloaded, get checked in and changed so they could turn around and head into the belly of the city for the performance. Santana spent the entire ride biting her finger nails which was a nervous tick she usually never indulged in. Jane patted her knee and laughed, "I thought after you got engaged you were supposed to be more relaxed, you look like you're more nervous then you were before you proposed."

"It's just, it's her big night and I want everything to be exactly what she dreamed it would be."

"That's sweet, but you know as well as I do, that the performance is all up to her, all you can do is show up and support her, cheer her on and congratulate her when it's over. She's talented and she had practiced for over a year for this, she has it in the bag so breathe and try to relax otherwise she'll sense that you are nervous and the she'll be nervous because of that."

"You're right."

"I always am." She winked at Santana as they pulled up to the theater. They had two hours before curtain so Santana told the limos when to be back and she and the rest of the family stopped into the restaurant next door to grab some dinner. They caught up more during dinner; Santana regular wrote emails back and forth to Liz who shared them with the rest of the family so they knew the basic everyday things that Santana had been up too, but it was nice for them to be able to catch up. She talked about the last minute wedding details and all the stuff surrounding her own graduation and post assignment afterwards. Liz and the others were going to be staying in town until the wedding seeing as it was only a week and a half after Santana's graduation so Santana knew that they would have plenty of time to discuss the post assignment she had received. She hadn't yet shared it with Brittany, but they had received their assignment, or rather Santana had gotten her's and once they got married Brittany would be included in the move.

About half an hour to curtain they decided to head back to the theater. Santana saw Quinn waiting for them at the entrance and Puck was standing behind her. Santana went over and hugged Quinn who pulled away and admired how good Santana looked. "If I were the jealous type I'd hate you for being so hot even in uniform, but enough of my insecurities, Rachel, Puck and I managed to save enough seats for everyone and trust me it took some doing, but the glee peeps are here including Mr. Shue, Ms. Pillsbury and Ms. Holiday. Your mom just got here with your dad and so the rest are for you and the family." Santana smiled, "thank you so, so much, I owe you major, ok Puckerman what do have for me?"

Puck stepped forward with two things of flowers in his arms. "Picked them up and kept them in water till we got here so they are as alive as I could possibly have kept them." Santana took one of the bouquets and turned around and handed them to Liz.

"I wanted to get you something more impressive than this, but I thought these would be ok for now."

"Santana you didn't need to get me anything."

"Yes I did, you are footing the bill for the wedding and that makes things so much easier for us to plan the last minutes things on top of graduation stuff and I cannot begin to tell you how much it means to Britt that she has people in her family who are really behind us. After everything with her dad she just…she just needed to be reminded that people other than me still love her and you did that and I could never repay you for giving her that, but I can make you feel special over the next two weeks." Liz smiled through a think veil of tears and hugged Santana. They eventually separated and Santana led everyone inside. Quinn took her seat next to Rachel and Puck sat down next to the seat he had saved for Santana. Before she sat down Santana greeted her friends and hugged them, thanking them for coming and supporting Brittany. Holly stood up and gave her an extra tight hug, like she usually did and looked Santana up and down.

"I just can't get over how grown up you are, seems like yesterday you didn't know which team you played for and were a crying mess in my office and look at you know. I know this is Brittany's show tonight, but you should know how insanely proud of you I am…my baby lesbian is all grown up." She hugged Santana again and the lights flickered signally everyone to take their seat. Santana sat down and with Puck on her left and Liz sitting on her right she took a deep breath as the lights went completely out and the curtain rose. The head of the department came out and said a few words before introducing the first student. About six people were set to go in front of Brittany and when it got closer to Brittany's turn Santana was having a hard time sitting still. She was bouncing her knees and biting her nails and Liz finally had to reach over and grab her hand, "darling, she'll be fine but you simply must calm down and that's an order."

Santana smiled, "yes ma'am." The stage got dark and when the lights came up again Brittany was standing in the corner of the back of the main stage, standing perfectly still. The music began playing softly and Santana let out the breath she was holding because it was all up to Brittany now. The song choice had been a hard one; Brittany loved hip hop, but ballet was her strong suit because of her core strength and she really did love its gracefulness so ultimately she settled on a slower piece that would fit better with ballet dancing.

Santana didn't realize that she was crying that much until Quinn handed her a tissue from the row behind her. The song had literally just begun and Santana was already losing it, but she chocked back the tears best she could. She could have explained that she was crying hard because unknown to her until that moment, Brittany had picked the song they had chosen to dance to during their first dance as a married couple at the wedding reception. Instead she sat there perfectly content to watch Brittany dance across the stage like it was easy. The fact that she had been working on the piece for over a year was blatantly clear and by the end of the song everyone was awe struck and some shared in Santana's tears. When the last note died off Brittany looked up and made eye contact with Santana and smiled as the lights dimmed. Santana wasn't really sure if a standing ovation was appropriate but she was certain that she didn't care and did it anyway. The last few student performed and Santana smiled politely but when everything was finished she was as excited as a kid on Christmas just to be able to see Brittany. She waited with the others and when Brittany finally made her way from back stage Santana literally left a conversation with Holly mid sentence and rushed over to Brittany, picking her up and swinging her around before kissing her. When she finally put Brittany down the blonde was all giggly, "so all I have to do is dance in front of thousands of people and I get kissed like that?"

"You were so amazing, they haven't even invented a word that describes how beautifully you danced. I'm so, so proud of you and pissed that you used our song without telling me; I was sobbing through the whole damn thing britt britt."

"Oh poor baby, want me to kiss it and make it better?" She and Santana went at it for a while and were only interrupted when Holly went over and literally pushed them apart. "Christ, you two are hornier now than you were in high school, you have a honeymoon in two weeks save some for that and come say hello to the other people who came to see you dance." Brittany smiled and Santana blushed. Brittany hugged her friends and thanked them for coming and made small talk with them up the upcoming graduations. She gushed over the flowers that Santana had gotten her and enjoyed seeing her family for the first time since Thanksgiving. Ultimately they all headed home knowing that they would see each other in a few days for Brittany's graduation, Kurt and Rachel and then Santana's. Santana was able to get the weekend off and so she was finally able to go home with Brittany and it felt nice to climb into bed and fall asleep holding the person that in a few short weeks she could finally call her wife.

**Sorry if that seemed short, but school is in full swing now so I'm getting busy, but I am trying to stay on top of this story. I'm going to do Brittany's graduation and then Santana's both in the next chapter, then wedding. Review and stay tuned if you want to see the wedding chapters including what song I was referring too in this one.**


	3. To Brittany

**Sorry for the wait guys, classes have been super busy and this weekend has been kind of nuts, but I wanted to get the graduation chapter up. Hope everyone enjoys this.**

The night before Brittany's graduation everyone was hanging out in the penthouse suite that Liz had booked for the month they were going to be in NY. The Glee kids were sitting around the coffee table talking and laughing, mostly telling stories from college where they had drank too much or had done something insane and managed to not get arrested. The older members of their group and families were scattered in the kitchen and in the living room chatting and getting to know each other better. Liz and Angela were wrapped up in their own conversation that drifted between graduation talk and wedding prep.

The kids that had already graduated, which was almost everyone save for Britt and Santana, were talking about what it felt like to be done with school…many of them talking about what to do now that they had their degrees. Many of them mentioned if they were moving home or staying put in New York or whatever state they had settled into. Brittany looked at Santana as if she was expecting her to jump in and say where they were going to be moving after the wedding. Santana excused herself and nodded for Brittany to follow her. They walked into one of the bedrooms that had a balcony and when Brittany closed the door behind them Santana was already leaning against the railing, looking deep in thought.

"We aren't staying here, are we Santana." It wasn't a question; at least she didn't mean it to be one. Brittany knew that the Army, that being a part of the military meant moving, sometimes often and without much warning, she knew that staying in New York was going to be borderline impossible. Santana looked up but looked out over the skyline in front of her. She smiled at Brittany and held out her hand for Brittany to take. When they were standing nose to nose Santana took a deep breath and shook her head.

"We aren't staying here. Our orders came in a few days ago. Good news is, Puck and I are going to be on the same base, same division. We'll have different commands, but we will likely be deployed together." Brittany held up her hand to stop Santana from continuing.

"Before we talk about you leaving me, tell me where we are moving." Santana reached into her jacket and handed Brittany the paperwork. "Fort Bragg. 82nd Airborne Division, if things go well, maybe The Golden Knights."

"That's in North Carolina."

"Yes it is. Look Britt, I know it's a lot to take in, but we knew this was coming. I'm going to miss our friends and family too, but this our life now."

"I'm not mad Santana, just a little shocked I guess. I knew this was going to happen, but to have the proof in my hands is a little overwhelming. In two weeks we get married. Two months later we have to pack up our entire lives and move and then you have to leave at some point. I guess I just need a second to let it sink in."

"Brittany, I'm sorry…"

"No, don't apologize to me for this. You are doing something amazing and brave and as mad as I am at you for doing behind my back all those years ago, I still am so proud of you and Puck. You're going to be a hero Santana, keeping people save and I can't find anything wrong with that. I'll move to the ends of the earth as long as I have you."

"I love you, you know that right?" She kissed Brittany and the blonde laughed, "you better or the wedding is going to be really awkward. When should we tell the others?"

"Not tonight, tonight's about you and your graduation, besides we should tell our families first."

"We should go back out to them." Santana pulled Brittany back closer to her, "not yet, this is our last moment of peace before two weeks of crazy start flying by. I want to have you all to myself right now."

"We're getting married; you'll have me for the rest of our lives." Santana kissed Brittany's forehead and smiled, "not long enough." They stayed outside for a few more minutes before Quinn came looking for them. Brittany walked back in first and Santana stayed where she was standing on the balcony. Quinn silently walked over to her best friend and stood shoulder to shoulder with Santana. They stayed like that, perfectly silent for what seemed like forever.

"I'm going to miss you." Quinn stated it simply. Santana turned to the blonde, "how did you…"

"Please, we start talking about moving and you and Brittany disappear and when I find you out here you're looking at the skyline like it's going to tell you something you don't already know deep down." Quinn kicked the ground before asking, "so you gonna tell me where or make me wait till I have to wave goodbye to you as you pull out of the driveway?"

"It stays between us, we have to tell our folks first, but I want to tell you." Santana took a deep breath and let the summer night breeze blow across her face. "Fort Bragg. Puck and I did really well during our airborne training and we are both posted to the 82nd Airborne."

"North Carolina isn't that far away. You'll be back when you can and you know we'll come visit." Quinn gently hit Santana's elbow with her own, "just don't anything stupid like hurt yourself or anything like that." They both laughed a short and hesitant laugh. "I love you, you and Britt are like family to me and I'm…I'm going to miss you. But I'm really proud of you Santana." Santana did her best not to cry, but she was failing. Without a word being spoken between them Santana wrapped her arms around Quinn and hugged her friend tightly to her and they both cried as though this was their last chance at goodbye. Brittany and Rachel had went to check on them and found the two girls still crying and embracing and Brittany stopped Rachel from going in and interrupting them.

"They need this Rachel, this is going to be hard for them. They would never admit it, but be separated like this is going to hurt them more than most people realize. They fought so much because they are so similar, but they love each other like sisters. They need to come to this slowly or saying goodbye for real will be way too much." They slipped out of the room and after ten minutes Quinn and Santana rejoined the group and everyone was kind enough to ignore their red and puffy eyes that gave away that they had been crying. They ate pizza sitting on the floor like they were kids again and the adults told embarrassing stories about them all. For the rest of that night they were able to simply enjoy each other. The knowledge that big things were coming was ignored and they simply enjoyed being happy with each other.

When alarms went off the next morning Santana was shocked to realize that Brittany wasn't in their bed, but was instead already dressed and was eating breakfast. Brittany looked up at Santana, "you should eat before we leave or you'll be grumpy later." Santana was going to contest, but Brittany was in too good of a mood for her to correct her. Santana ate quickly while Brittany made sure her things were ready and that as soon as Santana was ready that they could leave. Santana ran through a quick shower and was getting dressed when the rest of the house was waking up. Rachel and Quinn were going to meet up with everyone at the ceremony and would be driving in by themselves. Brittany was standing by the door holding her graduation garb and looking impatient.

"Sanny, come on, I don't want to be late." Santana walked out of Brittany's room still fussing with her cuff links (something she was sure she would never be able to do without help). "Britt, baby, love of my life, you don't even need to be there for another hour, it's going to be fine I promise. I'm ready now and we can leave whenever you want." They said goodbye to Rachel and Quinn and left for the ceremony. Brittany met up with some of her friends that were also there early and Santana went about trying to successfully save 20 seats at a graduation ceremony. By the time she had figured it out Brittany's family had shown up and the Glee family as slowly showing up one by one. Soon she did a head count and everyone was there so she sat down next to Liz and Victor sat down on the other side of her. The ceremony went well, but Santana fast hating the fact that Brittany's name was towards the end of the alphabet. When her name was finally called, it was very clear where Brittany's family was and Santana was perhaps the loudest. She whistled and yelled like every other proud family member, but everyone there knew what this day meant for her and Brittany. No one had ever expected much out of Brittany, but Santana saw the diamond under the dust and refused to let Brittany just fade into the dumb blonde role when she was anything but. Watching her graduate meant more to Santana then some people realized. Yes this was Brittany showing the world what she had always been capable of, but to Santana this was the greatest statement of courage ever.

They had endured so much; from coming out to dealing with the fallout and Brittany's father, the shooting, almost losing Brittany, all of it had the potential to destroy them. But here they were, they had done what few others thought they were capable of and Brittany especially seemed more than willing to rise and meet every challenge ever presented to her. So yes, Brittany had graduated, her degree was finally finished and they could never take that from her, but in Santana's eyes she had done so much more than that. Santana was shaken form her thoughts when the ceremony was over and people were starting to stand to meet their graduate. She had told Brittany to meet them in front of the south entrance to the music hall and so they were all waiting there and Quinn had the camera ready…she wanted to record Santana and Brittany's first moments after the ceremony. When Victor said he could see her coming toward them Santana turned and tried to patiently wait for Brittany to come to them. When she was close enough Santana ran over and wrapped her up in a tight hug. Everyone watched expecting Santana to kiss her, but nothing changed, they stayed wrapped up in each other. Santana pulled away just enough to look Brittany right in the eye.

"I love you so much and I'm so proud of you. And you remember what I told you."

"Never let anyone tell me that I'm not good enough." Santana nodded through her tears, "that's right, because you did this, you survived so much and you did this, not me or anyone else, this is your success and you never let anyone take that from you." They relaxed some and took pictures with all the group, with family and Brittany got some with her friends. When that winded down they made their way back to the hotel to celebrate the newest Glee club achievement. Everyone couldn't believe that in one more week Santana and Puck would graduate and then the wedding would be next.

As they ate and celebrated Santana got their attention and proposed a toast, "To my lovely bride to be and all her accomplishments, for all the things she has overcome to get here and to her and in a sense all of us for shocking the hell out of everyone and becoming more than anyone ever expected. To Brittany."

"To Brittany."

**Sorry if it got a like choppy at the end, it's late and I got another tattoo today and it is starting to hurt a little. Next is Santana and Puck's graduation, then wedding bells. Stay with me and review please.**


	4. Don the Army Blue

**Crazy couples of weeks coming for me, so I figured I would update while I still could. I apologize if this isn't what actually happens at a West Point Graduation but I'm trying.**

Brittany tried to fall asleep at a normal hour the night before Santana and Puck were set to graduate from West Point, but sleep eluded her. She tossed and turned for about an hour before she gave up and grabbed her robe. She walked out into the living room and settled onto the futon that served as the girls' couch. She thought about calling Santana, but figured that her fiancée would be sound asleep so she tucked her phone back into her pocket. She found herself looking out the sliding glass doors and she didn't realize that she had tuned out completely until she heard Quinn speak her name softly.

"Britt, honey what are you doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep, nervous energy I suppose."

"Seems like this is all some mistake, like we aren't old enough to be graduating from college and we certainly aren't odd enough to be officers in the military." Quinn sat down on the futon and Brittany returned to her spot.

"So much is happening in such a small space of time. Santana and Puck graduate, then Santana and I get married, two weeks for the honeymoon and then we're moving."

"When you put it that way it is a bit overwhelming."

"It's not even that. It's like we've been trained and condition our whole lives to dream these big dreams about how our futures should look like and now it's not the future anymore it's the present. The higher education, graduating, falling in love, getting married, big weddings, starting careers, starting families: I always wanted all of those things and I'm about to get them all at once. Don't get me wrong I am super happy and excited for the wedding and all that, but I guess it hit me all at once that adult living and all that real world stuff starts now. Just hard to wrap my mind around it you know."

"You have an embarrassment of riches my friend, you and Santana both. My opinion Britt, for what it's worth, is that you will both be just fine. The move is going to be hard; I will not lie to you. Saying goodbye to you guys will be one of the hardest things I'll ever do, but it's not goodbye forever and you aren't that far away. We're family Britt, distance never will change that."

"Promise?" Brittany held out her pinkie and Quinn laughed as she linked their pinkies together. "Promise, now come on, try to get some sleep, long day tomorrow." Brittany still had trouble sleeping, but she did manage to get some sleep before her alarm clock rudely woke her up. She spent the next hour getting ready and nervously pushing cereal around with her spoon because she was too nervous to eat. Finally Rachel emerged from the bedroom and said that the car was downstairs waiting for them. Liz and the family would be meeting them there and the Lopez's were driving on their own, but Liz sent a town car for the girls. Brittany played with her engagement ring the entire ride to the ceremony, but seemed to calm down once they reached the gate. The car dropped them off and Quinn told the driver when they would most likely need to be picked up. Brittany called Angela who said they already had seats and the Brittany's family and the Glee club were all already settled. The three girls made their way into the outdoor area set up for the graduation ceremony. Rachel saw Mr. Shue standing up waving his hands trying to get their attention. Quinn and Rachel walked up the steps and Brittany trailed behind them, taking a moment to look up at the empty seats waiting to be filled by the soldiers. She took a moment to appreciate the peacefulness that that moment gave her and then she turned around to meet her family and friends.

Brittany sat down next to her grandmother and Angela sat on her other side with Quinn settled into the seat next to her. Everyone made small talk, everyone but Brittany who was still playing with her ring and had almost ruined the program in her hands she was grasping it so tightly. Liz gently grabbed her granddaughter's hands, "I swear the two of you act the same whenever the other one isn't around to keep you balanced. Santana was doing the same thing at your senior showcase. Honey, just breathe and relax, they aren't shipping her off today so enjoy her achievement." Brittany let out a breath that she assumed she had been holding for a bit too long and let herself relax a bit. At that time an older man approached the podium, he was dressed in an Army uniform that was decorated in awards and markings that Brittany assumed she would have to learn the meaning of eventually. He welcomed everyone and then announced the officers that staff the school and as he did they filed in and stood in front of their seats. When they were settled he asked everyone to stand and soon the band that had been placed off to the side of the stage began playing. After a few minutes people started clapping and as Brittany craned her head to look she could see the group of soldiers marching towards them. Once they got closer it was easy to spot Santana because there were only a small number of female graduates in her company and once they found her they scanned the row about two rows behind where Santana stood and finally found Puck.

Everyone cheered and clapped as they marched by and thankfully Quinn and Liz both had the cameras at the ready because Brittany was in her own world looking at Santana. She had seen her fiancée in uniform of course, but this time was different and Brittany felt an overwhelming sense of pride and love as she watched Santana move past them with a serious and determined look on her face. All the cadets wore the signature grey uniform jacket (they weren't called the long grey line for no reason) with stark white pants; the other adornments including the officers' sword and hat made them all look so grown up even though most of them were kids. The glee kids were cheering, but they all looked stunned to see their friends in their uniforms; they realized in that moment that they weren't kids anymore and this was a real world wake up call. The group of soldiers moved in front of their seats and the music played out and finally fell silent. Everyone sat through the normal speeches only instead of them being boring keynote speakers they were generals and higher ups commending the graduates on their service and their future careers in the Army.

When it came to actually getting the degrees it was slightly different than regular college graduations only because it wasn't just them getting their degrees, it was also them becoming commissioned officers. They were called one at a time to get their degrees and after they saluted they were handed their diploma and after shaking the hand of the officer who handed it to them they returned to their seats. Santana and Puck's company were the fourth to be called forward and the whole group became almost painfully silent as they waited to hear Santana and Puck's names be called. When they could see that Santana was next everyone got cameras ready and Brittany was well into crying very proud tears.

"Brigade Commander, First Captain: Company A4, Santana M. Lopez." As Santana stepped forward everyone went nuts. The glee kids were cheering, whistling and crying all at once, Brittany's family was just as excited and Brittany was smiling big as tears ran down both sides of her face. Angela and Brittany were basically holding onto each other as Santana saluted and received her degree. Santana had made Brittany promise not to tell anyone that she had been named Commander of her company and the blonde had managed to keep the secret, allowing Santana's achievement to be a surprise until her graduation day. A few minutes later Puck's name was called and everyone celebrated just as they had with Santana. Brittany was happy that Shelby brought Beth to see her daddy graduate because she knew what this meant to Puck; he had finally done something that in his mind erased all the poor choices he had made when he was a teenager. The group sat through the rest of the names, politely clapping and trying not to get sunburns. Every so often a name would be called and Brittany would stand and clap because she had met some of Santana's friends and so she was just as excited that they were graduating that day. When it seemed as though they were done the General that welcomed them stood up and congratulated them saying that they were now full commissioned officers. He asked for everyone to bow their heads to honor in a moment of silence those graduates that had given the ultimate sacrifice since the last graduation ceremony. When the time had passed he congratulated the cadets again and with one final salute the ceremony was over and the cadets through their hats in the air like any other graduation ceremony.

Santana and Puck had told their friends and family where to meet them so that they could find each other quickly. As they walked closer Brittany could see Santana talking to her XO along with Puck and another soldier from their company. Part of her thought about walking up to her carefully, but the other part of her wanted to kiss her fiancée…guess which one she gave in to. She ran full speed over to Santana who saw her coming and opened her arms in just enough time for Brittany to run into them. Beth ran over to Puck yelling daddy over and over again which made him smile with a little tear in his eye as he bent down to scoop up his little girl who was now 6 years old and wasn't so little anymore. Puck turned back to the Colonel they had been talking to and introduced him to Beth.

"Sir, this is my daughter Beth. Beth can say hello to the Colonel." The little girl leaned her head against Puck's and waved shyly. The senior officer smiled and waved back, "hello Beth, did you see your daddy on the stage today?"

"He looks very pretty in his uniform." The little girl added and the Colonel laughed. "He did look very pretty didn't he?" The rest of the family had finally reached them and Puck started to introduce them to the Colonel. When he introduced Angela the Colonel removed his hat and shook Angela's hand.

"It's an absolute pleasure to finally meet you ma'am, your daughter was one of my best cadets and there is no doubt in my mind she'll make all of us very proud." Angela smiled, "that's very kind of you to say Colonel and I'm sure Santana would be honored to hear such wonderful things coming from her commanding officer, that is if she wasn't busy." Angela turned to see Santana and Brittany still kissing, nothing inappropriate, but it still made her mother roll her eyes.

"I think I can get her attention ma'am, may I?" Angela smiled and nodded her head and before she could really prepare herself the senior officer yelled out after Santana, "Lopez, front and center, now." Angela never saw Santana stop kissing Brittany just because someone yelled her name, but it was never an order before. Santana broke away from Brittany and appeared before her XO a little out of breath but standing at attention.

"Lieutenant, would you like to tell me what you were doing?"

"Kissing my fiancée, sir."

"I see, well, did it ever occur to you that perhaps it would be wise to introduce your fiancée to your commanding officer before you shove your tongue down her throat."

"No sir, my apologies sir." Everyone watching was getting a kick out of Santana acting very professional in an otherwise funny situation.

"No sir, well then since you seem so intent on show off in front of your wife to be why not show her how fast you can do 50 push-ups. Starting now." Santana hit the ground without any questions or lip because she wasn't a civilian anymore and you never question an order. She started doing the push-ups and Puck started laughing which was a bad idea.

"Puckerman, same for you 50 push-ups, go." Puck dropped to the ground next to Santana and both of them breezed through the push-ups and quick got to their feet.

"Outstanding, now Lopez who is this lovely lady you have been hiding from me until today?" Santana held out her hand for Brittany to take and pulled her closer. "Colonel Locke, this is my fiancée Brittany, Britt this is Colonel Locke he was the XO for our company." Brittany shook the man's hand and he smiled back at her.

"Now Brittany is it? Are you absolutely sure that you want to marry the Lieutenant here?"

"Very much so sir, I've loved her since we were little."

"Well then, best of luck trying to keep her line. Lopez." Santana stood up a little straighter, "don't do anything stupid like break her heart."

"Never sir."

"Good, now Brittany, last week the Lieutenant here was running around the office in quite the frantic state and when I asked her what caused her to do an entire days work in an few short hours she said something about her fiancée's senior showcase. Now tell me, did she show up on time?"

Brittany laughed, "yes sir she did."

"And did she bring you flowers?"

"Yes sir."

"Well then they may be some hope for her after all." He winked at Brittany and smiled. Brittany could see why Santana and Puck liked this Colonel so much.

"And what school was it that you graduated from Brittany?"

"Julliard sir, I focused mostly on modern dance, but did a lot of my work in ballet."

"Impressive and what do you hope to do with that education?"

"Well, the nice thing about it is that I can dance no matter where we move. I can work as a dance teacher or get work in a play in the chorus line. In the long run I would love to open my own studio, but that takes time and requires you to stay put and that may never happen with the Army. But regardless as long as I am working and dancing it won't be a waste."

"That's a very mature way of looking at things and I'm sure you and Santana will be very happy at Fort Bragg."

"I know we will be sir, we're both very excited for the move."

"I'm sure your family is less than happy about the distance." Brittany looked up and their friends and family who had started talking to each other and to Puck while Santana and she were occupied. "Only a few of them know right now, the rest will find out tonight, but they know that this is our lives now and they are supportive and happy for Santana and Puck."

"You are very lucky my dear."

"Yes sir, I am, very much so." The Colonel smiled and turned to Santana, "find Puckerman so that I can get a picture with my favorite cadets." Santana went to grab Puck and everyone grabbed their cameras to take the picture so that everyone would have a copy of it somehow. Brittany stood off to the side, but after a few pictures Santana waved her back and had her get into the picture as well. That was how the next 30 minutes or so went. Pictures with family, with all their friends, Santana and Puck took a few of just the two of them and soldiers from their company and of course Santana had plenty taken with her and Brittany. When they were done with everything they needed to do on the base everyone piled into their cars or into the limos and headed to the hotel. Liz had reserved one of the banquet rooms in the hotel so that they could all celebrate properly.

Everyone talked and ate; the glee kids were enjoying the fact that Liz set up a mic and let them do what they wanted with it. Singing erupted and the more the booze flowed the more the music played. When everyone settled down to have lunch Puck stood up and took the microphone off the stand.

"Alright everyone let's settle down, I know Liz was kind enough to give you free booze but I think you can manage a few moments of listening to something that isn't karaoke." Everyone laughed and Puck smiled before he continued. "Listen everyone both Santana just want to thank you, all of you for being here with us today, but also for supporting us through these last few years. I know everyone was pretty mad when we first said where we were going for school, but I can't tell you what it means to me that you all set aside your reservations and stood behind us as we embarked on this new journey. It's no surprise to anyone in this room that I have made some poor decisions in my life, some of them I can't ever take back or make right and others taught me something important. My decision to apply to West Point, to go there to be a part of something bigger than myself has been one of the best and most important decisions I have ever made. I was always afraid of being another Lima loser, but this morning I realized I would never be a loser in any right. This morning as we finishing getting ready Santana walked over to me and we were talking about how very far we had both come and I made a crack about not being a Lima loser. She got this dead serious look on her face and grabbed the collar of my uniform before getting in my face and saying 'losers of any kind do not ever wear this uniform, heroes wear this uniform so quit living in the shitty world of high school drama and look in the mirror and see what you made of yourself. No one did that for you, this is all you." Puck got a little chocked up and cleared his throat before continuing.

"This is one of the only things I've done in my life that I'm proud of and the fact that I did it for myself, it makes me feel like grown up, like the man I always hoped I could be for my daughter and my family. I'm so excited to see where the next part of my life takes me, because I get to prove to myself and to everyone around me that I am not a loser, I'm a soldier in the United States Army and we don't make losers, we make men and women willing to protect those dearest to us as well as complete strangers. Anyway, I don't want to sound long winded so I will thank you all again and propose a toast to my family, my friends, my daughter and all the people who helped me get here. And specifically I raise my glass to my fearless leader and best lesbro Lieutenant Santana Lopez. There is no doubt in my mind that one day you will be my leader again and I'll have to salute you, but until then we are going to rock them in the 82nd." Puck held up is glass, "to the 82nd Airborne." Most everyone raised their glass and repeated Puck's words, but Santana and the handful of other freshly graduated soldier responded with a guttural hooah.

Puck took a sip of the beer he had in his hand and turned back to the microphone, "and now I'm going to turn over the speech portion of today to my best friend Santana. But before I do I do want to address one thing. If you look at our insignias you will see that Santana and I have different ones. She made Brittany promise not to tell any of you that she was named Brigade Commander and I have no idea why, maybe she was just being modest, but I will say this. That position is given to a senior cadet that earns it, they don't give it to just anyone and in my mind, no one deserved it more than she did. I was proud to be led by her and there is no doubt in my mind that one day I will be again." Puck turned to where Santana was sitting and smiled at his friend.

"I feel like if I try to say something profound I'll ruin it by crying, but I want to try. I would never have done this with anyone else but you. I'm lucky to have you as a friend and I am honored to have you as a fellow soldier. You haven't always had the easiest go at life, but you always made the most of the hand you were dealt and look at where it got you. You have a beautiful wife and yes I'm going to call her that because in my mind you have been married since high school. You have family and friends that love you, you have this passion that cannot be calmed and you have the deadliest shot in all of Company A. I can only say this once so please hear me when I do; I love you like you're my sister, my best friend and my partner all at once and I will gladly stand up for you at your wedding next Saturday as I will stand by you through the hell of war. Womb to tomb, birth to earth, you are my best friend and it's a great honor to call you my friend and my lesbro." Santana was stunned and was crying persistently, no one knew that Puck could speak so profoundly. Santana stood up and went to where Puck was standing. The boy set his beer down and quickly saluted her. She smiled and returned the gesture before they let their arms fall to the side and Santana let Puck scoop her up into a hug that made everyone cry a little bit harder. Santana took the microphone and tried to sniffle back tears before she spoke.

"Thanks a lot Puckerman, do have any idea how hard it was to put this make up on and make it seem like I wasn't wearing any. I have no clue how to follow that, so I won't try to, I'll just say my peace so we can get on with eating cake. When I was 14 years old I had a hard time imagining my life and what it would look like in the future. I was lost and sad and I pushed people away who just wanted to love me, but thankfully they never gave up and eventually I let them in. And with their love, my sadness went away and all of a sudden I could see my future very clearly because I saw my future every time I looked into Brittany's eyes; I still do. I have always had a protective side to me and now that protectiveness will serve me well as I serve my country."

"It blows my mind to think that the glee club seniors have graduated from college and that now we all have the next part of our lives coming up fast. For me, the next big thing is happening next Saturday at 12:30pm. I never had a doubt in my mind that I would marry Britt Britt, but that didn't mean I was always ok with the idea that I would marry a girl. I was one of the lucky ones though, I had a family who supported me and just wanted me to be happy. Brittany's dream is to own a dance studio and will do everything in my power to make that happen, but she and I both know that the Army gets its way and we go where I'm needed. So while I can't promise her the studio of her dreams, I can promise her that no matter where we move I will do everything I can to give her everything her heart desires. I consider myself very blessed because my wildest dream comes true next week and I could not be happier that I get to marry the girl of my dreams in front of all those we love so dearly."

"Puck mentioned that we have gotten our orders to join the ranks of the 82nd Airborne and for those of you who don't know the 82nd is based out of Fort Bragg in North Carolina. I can't wait to start my career, but at the same time this move will be a sobering experience because it will mean saying goodbye to all of you. As far as I am concerned, you are all my family, biological or otherwise and no amount of miles will ever separate family. I expect all you weirdos to visit and to take care of Brittany when we have to deploy. I have no good way of ending this little speech, but I'm going to try. When I joined New Directions, it was a joke to me, but then something happened in that choir room. Life happened in that choir room; love, betrayal, friendship, new life and it even saw its own hellish version of death. My point is that that room and the people in it changed my life for the better and gave me the most beautiful perspective of the world around me. I love you all more than I can put into words, but please know that I could be on the other side of the world and I will still carry you all in my heart. So I toast the old New Directions, to Mr. Shue's lame vests, to Brad the piano guy, the band that seemed to follow us everywhere we went and to Journey for making more number one hits than we could have ever sung. And I have two special things to say to two special people. Relax, Brittany will hear how much I love her on Saturday, today I am talking about Puck and Ms. H." Puck smiled and Holly looked at Santana with a kind smile.

"Puckerman had to be an ass and make me cry so it's only fair for me to say some nice stuff back. There is no one on this planet who I would want standing behind me on Saturday, you are my best man and my best friend. I never want you to forget that the man you became was all your doing, no one did that for you. Be proud of what you have done; show your child and all the ones that come after her that their father is a man of integrity and passion, a man who loves his family and his country. We have an odd relationship, you and me, but that being said, you will always hold a special place in my heart." Puck was smiling and trying hard to pretend that he wasn't crying, but Santana saw the tears and smiled back.

"And last but not least Ms. H. You bravely stepped into a very messy situation; not many people would willingly try to help two sexually confused teenage girls who think they love each other. You made me rethink a lot of important things and I'm so glad you did because now I get to say that this lovely woman sitting next to me will be my wife in a week. So thank you for being the adult willing to get their hands dirty and help us through the hard stuff. You are weird and have the most insane views on life and my children will one day hear stories of their crazy Aunt Holly." Santana put the microphone back into the stand and went back to her seat. Holly hugged her from behind and kissed the side of her head.

"I'm so proud of my baby lesbian; you grew up into such a kickass person. Your wedding will be the wedding of the year I will make sure of it." She hugged both girls again and then took her seat. Santana nudged Brittany and gestured to all their friends dancing around and enjoying themselves.

"Think about it babe, next time we are all together like this we'll be getting married."

"I like the idea of being married to you."

"Well I should hope so, otherwise that whole till death do us part thing is going to be a bitch." Brittany laughed and Santana kissed her softly before resting her head against Brittany's, "I can't wait to be your wife."

**Hey guys, hope you like this chapter and please be patient while I work on the wedding chapters. Till then please review and tell me what you think because so far I have only had a few reviews. I love to hear from all you all so please feed my muse. Also, I have feelings about Britney 2.0…whose idea was it to write a whole episode where they give Brittany crippling depression for 45 minutes…NOT OK.**


	5. 72 Hours

**So I figured I would separate the wedding into several chapters with this one begin the wedding prep days (I'll probably make it two chapters before the wedding), then the next one being the ceremony, then the party. Enjoy.**

'Trust me'.

Two very simple words that Santana had a very hard time doing and yet here she was sitting in Kurt's apartment waiting for him to reveal the wedding outfit that he had designed and made special for Santana. Two years ago she and Brittany had begun to search for dresses and Santana wasn't sure if she wanted a dress or her dress uniform. When Kurt heard her mention this he thought for a moment and then frantically wrote something on his sketch pad. He asked for Santana's measurements without looking up from the paper and finally Santana asked what he was up to.

"I have an idea, I promise you, you will absolutely stunning. Just trust me." Santana was hesitant to do so, but Brittany finally convinced her to agree to Kurt's help. So for two years Santana would beg Kurt for a hint or to show her the work he had done, but he never gave in. So Santana waited until the day Kurt was ready to show off his master piece. She didn't know if Kurt had made her a dress or what he had come up with so she was uneasy to say the least when she sat down on his couch while he went to fetch the outfit. As Kurt moved around his apartment Santana looked at her watch several times.

"Kurt I have to go to a meeting on base before I go get Ms. H so can we expedite this fashion show?"

Kurt emerged from the other room holding a very large garment that was covered under a sheet. "Ok sorry for the wait. Now you talked about wanting a dress but also wanting your uniform so this idea came to me and this is what panned out from it." Kurt removed the sheet and Santana was rendered speechless. Kurt had somehow managed to make a stunning dress using camouflage material that matched the uniforms that all Army personnel wore. It had all the distinction that Santana's real uniform had including her rank and awards, but at the same time it was just as breathtaking as any other wedding gown. As she ran her hand over the dress she smiled at Kurt.

"Kurt…this is mind blowingly amazing. I never dreamt it would be something like this and I love it, truly the best of both worlds."

"And the Army parts are correct? It took me three months to research how to do this without insulting anyone."

"It's perfect, absolutely perfect." Kurt clapped happily and took the gown off the hanger, "let's get you in it so I can make any alterations tonight and have it ready to go by Saturday." Santana got into the dress with Kurt's help and it fit almost perfectly save for a few loose spots that were easy to fix. Santana got out of the dress and threw her uniform back on. She reached into her bag and grabbed a checkbook, "alright Mr. Fashionista, what do I owe you for this Hummel original?"

"Santana put that away, I don't want your money."

Santana looked at her friend in shock, "Kurt come on, name your price."

"Santana I mean it, you owe me absolutely nothing for this. Consider it my present to you."

"Kurt come on; this fabric is not cheap and the detail alone must have taken you a year on its own. The labor hour alone, I have to pay you something." Santana started to fill out the check but Kurt grabbed her hands. "Listen to me very carefully. YOU OWE ME NOTHING. You are always so focused on taking care of everyone else and protecting them, let me do this one thing for you please. This is going to be one of the happiest days of your life and I want you to look drop dead gorgeous so take the dress and just except that for once someone is going to take care of you." Santana forced back tears, but let Kurt hug her tightly before they pulled apart.

"I'll thank you for this someday, though I'm not sure how."

"Just let me use it in my next fashion show and we'll call it even."

"Deal. Look I would love to stay longer, but I have to leave for this meeting. I'll call you tonight about how to transport the dress on Friday night ok?"

"Tell Ms. Holiday I say hello."

"Will do."

Santana had finished her meeting early and was now waiting for Holly's plane to land at JFK. She saw the flight come across the screen at baggage claim and so she went to stand by the baggage carousel. About 15 minutes later Santana saw people coming down the escalator and soon she saw Holly waving at her from the top of the escalator. Santana waved back and walked a few feet to meet holly as she came off the landing.

"What no hug for your favorite teacher?" Santana laughed and hugged Holly tightly and held on for a little while.

"You doing ok there sweet pea?" Santana finally let go and nodded.

"Fine, just…really happy that you're back."

"Getting a little stressed out are we?"

"I just want everything to be perfect and that gets really stressful very quickly. It's just nice to know you're back in town and can help."

"I'm here for whatever you need." Holly grabbed her bag off the carousel and followed Santana out to the car. Once on the road the two women started talking all about the details of the wedding. No one but Brittany and Santana knew that Holly would be the one to actual perform the ceremony and marry them.

"I was so happy when you asked me to actually be the one to marry you guys and the training was super fun."

"You would find it fun."

"Hey, I got to learn all about uniting people in love and all that. It was like hippie bootcamp."

"Well I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. But it really means a lot to me and Britt Britt that you are doing this for us."

"Does anyone else know about me doing the ceremony?"

"Not yet, we want it to be a surprise, plus this isn't for them, it's for us. We wanted the person who brought us together to be the one that brought us together in marriage."

Holly smiled, "you are giving me far too much credit."

"If anything I'm not giving you enough. You made me step up and admit to loving her. You changed our lives and you were there when I thought I was going to lose her forever. Britt would probably never admit it, but she sees you as a mom to her. I mean she loves my mom and God only knows my mom adores Brittany, but I think she needed an adult she alone could see as a parent and you loved her when her mother refused to."

Holly was stunned and genuinely touched, "I won't let her or you down."

"You never have. Don't tell B I told you any of that, she only told me last mother's day cuz she was upset."

"My lips are sealed, but just so you know you guys are my grown up babies. Being such a big part of your wedding is such a huge honor, you have no idea what it means to me."

"It wouldn't be a wedding without you. Now that my outfit is done and you're here everything feels real."

"Dress or dress uniform?"

"You'll have to wait and find out with everyone else."

"No fair, maybe I can get Kurt to spill the beans."

"He kept it a secret from me for two years, so good luck with getting him to tell you. Just wait three days and I promise you it will be worth it." They pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and Santana helped Holly inside with her bags. "So what is the plan?"

"I'm going to check in with my bride and then I'll get you settled in your room." Santana opened the door of their suite to see Brittany on the couch, papers scattered in front of her and the phone attached to her ear. She looked up and smiled at Santana and waved at Holly before returning to her phone call.

"Yes, you are the fifth person to tell me that. I am perfectly well aware that we aren't married yet, our wedding is this weekend. What I am trying to get you to understand is that I am going to be her wife in 72 hours and when we move to North Carolina I would like to live in a house instead of under a bridge in a cardboard box. Well how about this, you give me your address and we'll come live with you. Have your supervisor call my wife because this conversation is over." Brittany slammed the hotel phone down and cursed.

"Baby, breathe, they aren't worth it." Santana gently reminded her from the kitchen. Brittany walked over to her fiancé and kissed her before turning and wrapping Holly up in a big hug. "I'm so happy you're here."

"Sounds like you are just as worked up as Santana is, what was the call about?"

"Housing on base issue."

"I've never heard you that angry."

"I don't want to talk about it anymore, you are here and I want to celebrate and be happy and enjoy my wedding."

"I was going to get Holly settled in her room and then we can go grab dinner alright?"

"Great, that gives me time to go change." Santana picked up Holly's bag and headed to the door. She led Holly about three doors down and opened the door with a key card that she later handed to Holly.

"Santana this room is too much, you have to let me pay you guys something."

"No you don't the whole floor is ours anyway. Liz bought out the floor about two years ago, so the whole wedding party is up here, Britt's family, my family, glee peeps, everyone is on this floor so my apologies for the noise. But regardless of that I wouldn't let you pay me anyway. I'll tell you something that I really want you to listen very carefully to. Mr Shue likes to strut around and beat his chest saying that he turned us into adults, that he taught us how to live and while I love him for the things he has done, YOU are the person who made me and Britt grow up into who we are. Every good thing in my life, I have because of you, because you made me see that I deserved to be happy. You owe us nothing, ok, but I owe you everything and will probably spend the rest of my life repaying your kindness to me and my family."

Holly was stunned speechless, Santana really did blow her away. "Listen to me Santana, you did this. All those good things you think I did, you did them, you accomplished them, not me. If played even a small part in your life then I am thrilled, but don't sell yourself short ok. And you don't owe me anything and even if you did I think we'd be even by now."

"I disagree respectfully."

"Of course you do. Just don't go naming your first born child after me."

"Never, Brittany insists that the first baby we have is going to be a boy because of that deal I made with her when she was still in her coma. You're safe until we have a girl, but then watch out." They both laughed, but deep down they knew that there was a kernel of truth to Santana's words.

"Anyway, I'll leave you to relax and get ready for dinner and I'll come back over in about half an hour and we can go from there. Britt's family will probably come with us and Quinn and Rachel might be joining us if they made it here on time like they thought they would."

"Sounds great, do I need to dress up at all."

"No, casual is fine. Now if I don't get back to Britt soon she'll call the housing people back and I'll have to calm her down again." Santana left and Holly went about getting settled and dressed for dinner. She got a text message from Santana telling her to meet them in the lobby. When she got down there she didn't have to look far before she heard a voice from the bar call out to her. When she looked up she saw Quinn and Rachel sitting at the bar and she went over to join them.

"You guys are going to get tired of seeing me; this is like the fourth time we've been at the same event in the last three weeks."

"Please you're one of the coolest teachers we ever had, plus Santana loves you likes you're family which means we love you like you're family. Rachel offered with a smile. Quinn threw back the shot that was in front of her and jumped in, "besides you managed to get Santana to pull her head out of her ass and admit to liking boobs so you are my favorite."

"Quinn, stop doing shots of Jager, it's only 5 in the afternoon."

"But it's on Santana's tab, open bar and all that."

"Baby the open bar is at the wedding, which is on Saturday. Today is Thursday." Quinn looked down at the empty shoot glass and laughed, "oh well, put on Santana's room anyway." Rachel laughed and Quinn asked for a glass of water to at least pretend to be doing the responsible thing. He turned back to Holly and Rachel who were talking about some random wedding detail.

"So did Santana show you the fancy digs Liz set up for us?"

"She did, this whole hotel is just stunning, Brittany's grandmother is being very generous." Quinn was about to agree when someone else joined the conversation, "well Brittany is my oldest grandchild and after what her father put the two of them through, they deserve at least this much on their wedding day." Holly turned around to see Liz and a few other members of Brittany's family standing in the lobby of the hotel.

"Mrs. Pierce, I know we've seen each other several times over the last three weeks, but I don't think we ever got properly introduced. I'm Holly Holiday; I was a substitute teacher at WMHS back when all these trouble makers still were students." Liz shook Holly's hand and smiled, "I know who you are Ms. Holiday, my granddaughter and Santana both speak very highly of you, but it's nice to finely meet face to face. I trust your room is comfortable enough for you."

"It's amazing, but I wish you would let me pay for it."

"Absolutely not, my husband is having way to much fun signing checks and paying for things. Truth be told he's done more planning in this wedding than I have, guess at heart he's just a big kid. My point in all that is that he wanted the girls to be surrounded by the people who love them the days before the wedding. My family, Santana's parents and family, the other glee kids and you are all up there because we know that both of them will start to freak out the night before, this way they don't have to go far to find someone to talk them down."

"Talk who down from what?" Santana and Brittany came walking up behind Liz and knew they were being talked about.

"Your grandmother thinks you both are going to get cold feet and you're gonna need someone to cry to, that's why we're on the same floor." Santana laughed because if nothing else Quinn drunk was funny. "I see, well unless we want to talk about us more behind our backs let's go grab some food shall we?" Everyone else agreed and started to walk toward the door. Holly rode shot gun while Rachel drove leaving Santana, Brittany and Quinn in the backseat. Holly listened to Rachel talk about her and Quinn finding a new apartment and as she listened she looked in the rearview mirror at how Santana and Brittany interacted with each other. They were talking quietly and would giggle over something the other had said. Holly smiled and after thinking about it for a minute she grabbed a pad of paper from her purse and wrote down some notes for her speech at the wedding reception. Rachel saw her do this and she couldn't help but smile at her old teacher.

"You know we all owe you a pretty big thank you." Holly looked at her confused. "They were absolutely miserable before you came around and got them to finally see what had been right in front of them. It was getting hard to pretend that Santana didn't look at Brittany a little longer than normal or that Brittany only seemed to make sense to Santana. You did what everyone else was afraid to do."

"I don't understand why everyone thinks I did this big important thing, I just told them the truth."

"Exactly, you treated them like adults who had real emotions and no one had done that before. They needed to hear the truth; that it was perfectly alright to love each other the way they do. I know you were only around for a week, but what you did affected the remainder of their high school time and it still influences them now. Eventually, you will have to realize that you're special to them for a reason and they love you just like they love Angela and Liz."

"Santana said the same thing to me."

"Think of it this way: Angela gave birth to Santana, Liz gave birth to the person who eventually fathered Brittany. They grew up together, but they never saw the love that was right there, until you came in. You made them sit down and look at each other and realize that their hearts were always meant to beat for each other. So when they tell you how much they love you, don't deny how big of a role you had in this happening. Maybe they would have figured it out on their own, maybe not, but because of you we never ever have to find out." Holly couldn't respond to that because Rachel had a damn fine point. Rachel smiled because she knew she had finally gotten Holly to see why everyone was always so found of their onetime substitute.

**Sorry if the ending sucked a little bit, but there it is. My heart is still broken from that last fucking episode, who breaks up all the couples, Ryan Murphy that's fucking who. This is the first hiatus that I actually don't care about because until they get back together I'm taking a break from Glee. Only consolation is that Finn shot himself which was just too delicious. Anyway, I'll do the rehearsal dinner, then the wedding itself and so on. Drop me a review and let me know what you think.**


	6. 30 Hours

The morning of the rehearsal dinner had snuck up on them and Santana was sure she was going to lose her mind by the time dinner actually came around. Her family had arrived that morning and Santana was up early trying to organize everything. She met her mother and the rest of her family in the lobby still dressed in her PJ's. Everyone hugged Santana and happily chatted about the wedding and even though she was tired, Santana was glad her family was finally here.

"Ok, everyone listen up, we are all on the 12th floor on the West side of the building. We already set people up with room assignments, but feel free to move around if you wish. There are a few ground rules. One: I'm slowly losing my mind so as the day wears on I will not be able to deal with small issues. In your rooms there are packets of info and there is a list of people to go bother before you even think about asking me a question.

Two: Dinner is at 6, rehearsal is at 5. We will be taking the limo and a few cars so everyone will have a ride so now worries there.

Three: If you walk into the suite Britt and I are in, please do not touch anything or it will get misplaced and I will lose my mind tomorrow.

Four: I'm really glad that you all are here and I am excited for tonight and tomorrow. So every follow me upstairs and we'll get you all settled."

The whole group got upstairs and Santana went room by room getting her family set up in their rooms. She returned to her suite and everyone was awake and moving around in a fit of confusion. Santana locked eyes with Puck and with a quick nod of her head Puck knew what to do. Puck moved into the center of the room and whistled causing everyone to stop.

"Ladies and gentlemen this is crunch time, we are T-minus 30 hours till I-do. Now, this is a military wedding so let's start acting like we know what we are doing here. All yours Lieutenant." Puck looked over to Santana who stepped up and took over where Puck left off.

"Ok folks, let's make this simple:

Rachel: I need you to get Brittany and her stuff settled in your suite. That means make up, shoes, everything she needs for the wedding because after the dinner we have to be separate.

Quinn: Get all your stuff and get it in this suite cuz you are my handler tonight.

Puck: You are with Kurt in getting my and Britt's outfits to the bridal suites at the chapel, take Mike and Finn with you when they get here.

Mom, Liz and Carmen: There are 3 huge boxes sitting on the table full of the stuff we need the morning of the ceremony. I need those in the bridal suites and they are labeled properly so just set them up according to the diagram in them.

Victor: The caterer, photographer and reception hall coordinator all need their final payment and they will meet you downstairs at 4 so you can meet with them all at one time.

Everyone else, if you don't have a job, just relax and stay out of the way of people who have jobs. Enjoy the hotel and I cannot stress this enough, if you have a question for me ask yourself if you think it will stress me out, if it will ask Quinn. Great, I will see everyone downstairs at 4:45 where we will meet up and leave for the rehearsal and dinner."

Everyone went about with their jobs that they had been given and the suite became less crowded and quieter. Santana grabbed Brittany by the hand and pulled her into the room they had shared.

"Let's go for a walk."

"Don't we need to be here?"

"They have their marching orders. You and I need a few minutes with no wedding craziness, just you and I." Brittany smiled and followed Santana out the door. They saw Quinn in the hallway as they were leaving.

"Hey we'll be back in 20 minutes; we're going to take a quick walk."

"Ok, but keep your phone on just in case." Santana nodded and continued walking with Brittany toward the elevators. They walked for about ten minutes before finding a small park that seemed inviting. As they stood at the edge of a pond in the center of the park Santana had her arms wrapped around Brittany's waist, but soon she felt Brittany tense up.

"What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?"

"I'm gonna miss you." Santana turned Brittany around so they were eye to eye. "I'm right here Britt, why are you worrying about that."

"Cuz they will send you away and you might get hurt or worse."

"Hey, Britt breathe. There is no reason to worry about that right now. This is the happiest time of our lives that we are planning for, don't get upset by what might happen later."

"But…" Santana rarely cut Brittany off but she had to now or Brittany would work herself into a anxiety attack. "Not buts. Let me ask you something. What is happening tomorrow?"

Brittany smiled, "we're getting married."

"And after we say I do, what will you be to me?"

"I'll be your wife." Santana leaned forward and kissed Brittany softly and gently pulled away.

"Exactly, you are going to be my wife. You know I'm never real possessive, but you and I have always belonged to each other and tomorrow you will be my wife. They may send me thousands of miles away, but be at peace, for I always return for what is mine."

"You stole that line from One Night with the King." Brittany laughed.

Santana smiled, "But it made you laugh and its true. No matter where I go, you will always be mine and I will always do everything I can to come home to you."

"I love you Santana."

"I love you too Britt. We should head back before Quinn gets overwhelmed." Santana held out her hand and Brittany gladly took it. They walked back into the suite and helped their family and friends put the finishing touches on everything. When those last minute jobs were done everyone went to their rooms to start getting ready for dinner and rehearsal. When everyone was dressed they gathered in the lobby to decide who would ride with in and in what car. It took some doing, but eventually everyone arrived at the chapel and met up with the wedding planner that they had been working with.

Everyone in the wedding party stood in the back of the chapel while everyone else took a seat in the pews. The bridal parties on both sides practiced walking down the aisle and taking their places. Santana was walked down the aisle first by her father and when they were set in their places the wedding planner took the time to explain that the music would change before Santana and Brittany made their entrances.

Victor walked down the aisle with Brittany on his arm and even though she knew it was just practice Santana got emotional when she saw Brittany walking toward her. The wedding planner went through the whole ceremony, allowed people to practice the readings and then they practiced walking out. When all that was done the planner went over a few more details before telling everyone she would see them tomorrow morning. Everyone piled back into the cars and drove to the restaurant where they had dinner reservations. Everyone made small talk for a while as they waited for the food to come out and once everyone had their plate in front of them Santana stood up and gently tapped her glass with her fork in an effort to get everyone's attention.

"Alright everyone, now that I have you all here and settled we can officially thank you all for going us tonight and for sharing tomorrow with us. I'm not going to talk long because I'm hungry and you will hear enough speeches tomorrow, but Brittany and I are so happy that we get to share all this happiness with our friends and family so we wanted to take a moment to thank you all for helping us celebrate our wedding. I'm not sure about anyone else, but today kind of snuck up on me. I remember thinking that we have four years to plan this wedding, that's lots of time. But no matter how ready I thought I was I was shocked to wake up one morning and realize that my wedding was a few weeks away and I was graduating. Many of you helped us celebrate when Brittany and I graduated and so you are probably thankful that after tomorrow, you get a break from having to see us. It's no secret that I have a huge soft spot for Brittany and I can't think of a time when I didn't love her and didn't want to be around her all the time. Now here we are and she's going to be my wife and I get everything I ever wanted and at the same time I have more than I ever could have ever dreamt of. I tried really hard growing up to push people away from me, but apparently you nerds couldn't take a hint and insisted on being friends with me in high school and I have no explanation for why that happened. However it happened, we all stuck by each other through all the good times and we somehow made it through the bad times and now here we are. I don't know what I did in my life to deserve the friends that I have, but I'm thankful for it, because I love you, all of you like we're family. Tomorrow is going to be crazy, hectic and it's going to be tears from beginning to end, like all epic love stories are, but tonight Brittany and I wanted to acknowledge all of you and what you mean to us. So I would like to propose a toast to family, whether it's the one we were born into or the ones we made along the way, may we always know the road that will lead us home." Santana and Brittany held up their glasses and everyone followed before taking a sip and trying to brush away the stray tears in their eyes.

Everyone ate dinner and many of them ended up telling stories from their college years. When the food was finished, everyone was enjoying spending time together and they slowly started to realize what time it was and that they should be heading back to the hotel. Santana didn't understand why they had to follow so silly rule about not being together the night before the wedding; I mean it was a gay, military wedding, nothing about this wedding was traditional so why start now with traditions. Brittany however thought it would be fun and what Brittany wants, Santana can't say no to, so she relented and here they were, being forced to say goodbye in the parking lot of the restaurant. Rachel was waiting patiently with Quinn a few feet away; they both knew better than to try and rush this.

"You're absolutely sure that you want to do this, because we can tell the ambiguously gay duo to go away and we can be together tonight?" Brittany smiled and kissed Santana before pulling away slightly. "It's one night; we have the rest of our lives and a million nights to spend together. We can handle one apart."

"As you wish." Santana winked at her fiancée and gave her one more kiss and tried desperately to make this one last longer. When they pulled away Santana waved down one of the town cars and the car pulled up right beside them. Rachel climbed in first and Brittany followed. Santana gave her one more kiss though the open window, "call me before you go to bed, there aren't any rules against that right?"

"I love you nerd." Brittany smiled and gave Santana one last kiss before Santana backed away and hit the roof of the car to signal the driver to go. Quinn stood behind her as they watched the car pull away and a new one pull up to take them.

"You gonna be ok?"

"I get to call her my wife for the rest of my life, I've never been happier. Let's go get some sleep, I need a sleeping pill and a King size bed." Santana let Quinn get in the car first and she settled in next to her. They rode in complete silence until they hit the freeway. Without turning to Quinn, Santana broke the silence, "you'll make sure she's ok right?"

Quinn didn't understand what Santana meant at first until she looked to see her friend starring out the window clearly thinking about more than just the wedding tomorrow. She reached over and took Santana's hand, "Brittany is going to be fine, she doesn't need anyone to take care of her while you're gone."

"Promise me." Santana whipped her head around so that they were looking each other in the eye. "Promise me that you will check on her when I'm away and that you'll make sure she's doing ok. Promise me."

"Hey, you are working yourself up; you know I would never let anything happen to her. I promise you, when you deploy, whenever that is, Rachel and I will make sure Brittany has the support she needs." Santana seemed to calm down and they quickly pulled up to the entrance of the hotel. Once they got upstairs Santana seemed to have calmed down and was now back to be mad that she couldn't be with Brittany. After changing into sleep clothes Quinn opened a bottle of champagne and poured them each a glass before sitting on one side of the king size bed. Santana drank the contents of her glass faster than she had expected but it did take the edge off her nerves. She laid down on the bed and played with her engagement ring while Quinn finished getting ready for bed. By the time she climbed into bed with Santana she assumed her friend to be asleep so she quietly got settled under the covers. She wasn't expecting it, but she eventually felt Santana snuggle into her shoulder.

"Don't read too much into this Quinn, I just hate sleeping alone." Quinn couldn't see it, but she was sure Santana was smirking at her own joke.

"Go to sleep Santana."

After trying to fight off a yawn, Santana pushed Quinn's shoulder, "you don't outrank me I don't have to listen to you." They got quiet again and just when Quinn thought Santana was asleep she said one last thing in a very sleepy voice, "I love you Quinn."

Quinn smiled and responded, "I love you too Santana."

**There you go sorry for the wait but school has been insane with papers and projects. I voted this morning and I hope the election goes the way I want because I want to wake up with civil rights tomorrow morning so GO OBAMA. Anyway wedding chapters beginning next so review and tell me if there is something you want to see.**


	7. Walk Slow

**Ok, I am so so so very sorry for the delay you guys. I just finished my first semester in graduate school and I had a straight up near nervous breakdown during finals and yet I somehow ended up with a 4.0 for the semester. Anyway, this chapter will be all the morning of the wedding stuff and the next chapter will be the I do's and that stuff so hopefully you all haven't given up on me.**

Santana woke up to her phone alarm playing the beginning lyrics to Bruno Mars' Marry You. She realized that she was still snuggled into Quinn so she quick untangled herself from her best friend and shut off the alarm. The sudden noise and movement woke Quinn up and had her now sitting up in the bed rubbing her eyes.

"What time is hair and make-up coming?"

"They will be here in 45 minutes. I'm going to shower now and you probably should too, but like shortest shower in history ok?"

"No problem, we washed our hair last night anyway, this is just us trying to be a clean as possible before a day of moving and dancing. Go shower and I'll use the second bathroom to do the same, meet back in here in 10 minutes. Go." This was why Quinn was in charge of Santana; she could get straight to the point and move her along even when she was being stubborn. The two women split up and showered before throwing on tank tops and shorts so that they could have their make-up done in comfortable clothes. Just as the make-up person showed up to start working with them, down the hall Rachel and Brittany were already having their hair worked on while Rachel tried to get Brittany to eat something.

"Rachel I ate something; just let it be."

"Brittany you ate an apple and I will not have you fainting on your wedding day, Santana would murder me on site." Rachel pushed a bagel in front of her friend, "eat the bagel now and then you can brush your teeth before make-up gets here." Brittany couldn't argue with Rachel's logic, but she was excited and nervous and food was the last thing on her mind. She managed to force herself to eat the bagel by the time their hair was finished and Rachel took a deep breath, relieved that so far things were going as smoothly as they could hope for on this day.

Quinn and Santana had eaten and were done with make-up and were currently having their hair tended too while they sipped on more champagne. Quinn knew Santana needed something to take the edge of her nerves, not that getting married scarred either of the two brides, but they both were concerned with everything going as planned. Just as the hair people showed up, the bridal suites became a mess of people. Brittany and Rachel were joined by Brittany's cousin Maggie, her aunts, her grandmother and Tina. They all chatted happily and the amount of people in the room distracted Brittany from worrying about anything other than enjoying herself. The photographer came in and took pictures of them all getting ready and down the hall the second photographer was doing the same thing in Santana's suite. She had been joined by her aunts, Carmen, Angela, Mercedes and when she was done getting ready herself Holly joined them. The champagne was polished off and make up was re-applied before Puck lightly knocked on the door. Quinn let him in and he complimented all the women on how beautiful they all looked and just as he was about to ask where Santana was she stepped out from main bedroom.

"Well what do you think?" Puck was stunned and it took him a minute to finally say something.

"You look radiant."

"You're just saying that." Puck shook his head and smiled, "I'm not, I can't wait to see you in your dress because I'm pretty sure it will confirm my suspicions."

"What kind of suspicions would that be?" Santana laughed at Puck as he seemed to be tongue-tied.

"That the last time I saw a woman look more beautiful was when I saw Quinn holding Beth." Quinn smiled at the memory and Santana didn't know how to respond other than to smile a little bigger and hug Puck. When they pulled away, he tried to put on a brave front and pretend that he wasn't near tears, "the limos are ready when you are, so if you all are done up here we should get you downstairs."

"What about Britt?"

"She's fine and I told Liz to wait for me to call the suite before they head downstairs." Santana looked around the suite to make sure everything was done and that anything she needed was packed and ready. As she checked her bag once more Quinn grabbed her hands, "Santana, we have everything, I promise you." Santana nodded and told Puck that they were ready to go. He called down to the limo and then called Liz to say that in 15 minutes they could follow in their own limo. They all filed their way downstairs and into the limo, everyone but Quinn and Santana dressed for the wedding. Once they were all in the limo Puck closed the door behind them and hit the rook of the car twice before they took off.

Brittany and her whole following of family and friends followed suit and about ten minutes later were loaded into the second limo. This time Puck climbed in next to Brittany and the driver took off toward the chapel. Both cars were filled with the sound of music immediately and off key singing soon followed. It seemed to calm down everyone's nervous energy and remind them that today was a happy day. When they pulled up in the front of the chapel Santana and Quinn got out first and quickly made their way into the first bridal suite with Kurt hot on their tails. Quinn grabbed her dress of the hook and went into the bathroom that was connected to the suite. As she put her dress on, Kurt helped Santana put on her custom gown. She looked just as beautiful in it at that moment as she did the day he showed it to her. Once she was in the dress the photographer was allowed in to take pictures of her in the dress and just as he started taking pictures Quinn emerged from the bathroom in her dress.

"Well, good news is I still fit in this dress so…" Quinn completely lost her train of thought when she looked up to see Santana finally in this dress that no one else knew anything about. The photographer got a few shots of Quinn's face that must have been priceless and she eventually shook off her shock and was able to make words again.

"Kurt outdid himself, you look stunning."

Santana blushed a deep shade of red, "you like it?"

"It's perfect, really the best of both worlds, Britt is going to flip when she sees it. You look beautiful, but that is no surprise."

"I don't know why, but the second I got zipped into this I felt like an adult. I mean, I'm getting married." Santana got real chocked up and Quinn wrapped her up into a tight hug and the two of them stayed like that for a while because but was clearly something that Santana needed. When they pulled away Santana was thankful that she had on fake eyelashes because they prevented the tears to ruin her mascara.

"I'm going to need to stop doing that."

"It's ok to be emotional Santana, it's a big thing you're doing today."

"I'm not crying because I'm scared or anything like that, I just…" Santana took a deep breath and laughed at whatever memory that had popped into her head. "I loved her the second I saw her, for a long as I could remember I loved her, but I always thought it was because we grew up together and we just had that connection. Then we grew up and I always wanted to be around her. When we were kids we had a pretend wedding in her yard and I remember not wanting to go home because I didn't want to have to leave her. When I was ten I saw a picture of my parents at their wedding and I told my mom that I had married Brittany and she laughed and said that I was to young to get married. So I told her that when I was older, when we grew up, I would marry her all over again. She told me that I couldn't marry her because we were both girls. She didn't mean anything by it, I mean how could she have known, but it broke my heart, the thought of spending any amount of time breathing on this earth without Brittany being my wife. Now here we are, 12 years later, I'm in a wedding dress and I get to have marry her and I'm crying because all my life everyone said that it was the one thing I could never have and I today I get it."

Quinn watched as all those memories played across her best friend's face in the form of one emotion or another. "You too were always meant to be, even when I didn't understand what it was I could see the love there. It's ok to be happy about this Santana; no one is ever going to take her away from you. For better or worse she is stuck with forever." Santana smiled and pushed Quinn's shoulder, "you're a jerk and I hate you."

"Love you too nerd."

Across the hall Brittany was surrounded by Rachel, her aunts and Liz who were all helping get her synched into her dress which had a corset lacing in the back, making it a job for many hands. Once Brittany felt securely laced into her dress they tied off the bodice and zipped up the dress. Of course Brittany looked like Barbie in a wedding dress and no one could deny that the happy blonde looked happier than anyone had ever seen her ever and that was saying something. When the dress was on and the other girls were done getting dressed Liz opened the door to the suite and allowed her husband to come in. The other women stepped outside for a moment and let Brittany have a moment with her grandfather. She spun around in her dress, which allowed for a full view of her and Victor couldn't stop smiling.

"I always said you were a princess, now you finally look like one."

"I kind of feel like a princess, but they never wrote about this kind of fairytale in any book I ever read."

"No I guess no one ever tried that one out. Look I know you are on a schedule and we have to get this party started soon, but I just wanted a moment alone with you, to talk to you."

"Talk to me about what?" Brittany smiled big and Victor couldn't believe how much Brittany looked like Liz did when they got married.

"I wanted to apologize."

"Don't please I don't want to talk about him today. He made most of my life hell, he won't ruin my wedding day."

"I know, I just, if we had been around more we could have kept you safe, maybe if we had done something different as parents he would have been a better father to you."

"Stop. I will only say this once because this is the happiest day of my life and my father has no place in it. You did nothing wrong, he made a choice to be who he is and all of his choices are his own. I don't blame you and neither does Santana so please don't blame yourself." Brittany kissed her grandfather on the cheek and he smiled.

"You look just like your grandma did when we got married, although we were piss poor when we got married, barely had enough money to get her a dress. Not that I cared, the fact that someone as special as your grandma would ever give me the time of day was enough, I was just glad she showed up." Victor laughed, "The two of you are going to have the most amazing life together, and if it's not too much to ask, maybe every now and then you'll come visit this old man."

"We're moving to North Carolina, not the moon."

"Hey, I lost you once so North Carolina sort of seems like the moon to me." Brittany took a step closer and held Victor's hands in her own, "you never lost me, and you certainly aren't going to lose me now. You guys are my family, just because I'm starting my own doesn't mean I'm gonna leave you behind."

Victor smiled and tried not to cry, "well, I'm going to go make sure we are all ready to go, because I'm sure that wife of yours is ready to say I do." Victor stepped out of the room and closing the door behind him was one of the harder things he had to do, mostly because he knew that when he opened it again it meant that he would be escorting his eldest granddaughter down the aisle. He looked up and saw Puck standing in front of Santana's suite. He nodded to the young man who was now dressed in his dress uniform. Puck nodded back and knocked on the door of Santana's suite. Angela opened the door to let him in.

"Ladies and Kurt, we need everyone who isn't Santana to line up in their places." Everyone slowly started to filter out of the room and before Angela left she gave Puck a kiss on his cheek, "she won't let anyone see her in that dress until she is walking down the aisle, it must really be something." She walked over to her position with all the other members of the wedding party and Puck shut the door behind him.

"Alright, let me see what Hummel came up with that is so damn impressive." Puck tapped his foot and fixed his uniform before looking up and when he did he literally stopped breathing for a moment. He never had seen Santana look this happy ever and she looked more beautiful than she ever had before. Maybe it was the dress or maybe it was the huge smile plastered across her face, but in that moment Puck was certain, no bride ever looked more beautiful than his best friend did in that moment.

"Well, what do you think?"

Puck removed his hat and took a step toward Santana and in perhaps the most tearful voice ever he answered. "I've never seen a more beautiful woman in my whole life."

"You can't cry because then I will and I won't be able to stop." Santana turn toward the mirror and tried to dab her eyes with a tissue. Puck put his hat back on his head and stood at full attention and by a stroke of good luck the photographer captured that moment as he was about to leave.

Santana turned around and smiled, "you aren't going to trip are you? Because I need to know that between you and my dad that I am safe to be a little wobbly on my feet." Puck offered Santana his arm and as she took it he kissed her forehead, "I'll get you to the end of that aisle, but walk slow."

"Why?"

"I want to hold onto you as long as possible." Santana expected to hear that from her father, but hearing it from Puck melted her heart and she gave him one last peck before nodding toward the door.

"Let's hit it partner." When the door opened the last of the wedding party was starting to walk down the aisle. Santana's father joined arms with Santana on the opposite side as Puck and when the music changed Santana took one last breath before they stepped in front of the now open double doors.

**So once again, I am insanely sorry about the wait, but school had to come first. Hopefully, this was worth it and I'll start working on the vows ASAP so just give me a little wiggle room. Reviews are nice and thank you for everyone who stuck with me. **


	8. By The Power Vested In Me

Santana took a moment before she signaled that she was ready to go: that's all she needed, just that one moment to wrap her head around the fact that her wildest dream was about to become her reality. She nodded to the wedding coordinator who signaled the music. Puck stepped up on her right side and her dad stood to her left, each of them offering her their arm. She looped her arms through each of theirs and then grasped her bouquet of flowers tight in her hands. With everyone set, Santana gave one final nod. With that she heard the music change to the song she would be walking to, the song she didn't actually pick. That was their deal, Santana picked the song Brittany would walk down the aisle too and Brittany got to pick her's. It was their own way of singing each other in; they picked songs that they would sing to each other if they weren't going to be a mess of emotions.

The doors opened to reveal a rather large gathering of guests along with a collective gasp when they saw her in her dress. Santana hated having people stare at her and wanted desperately to be done with the whole thing right then, but her father gave her hand a quick squeeze and before she knew it he and Puck were taking tentative steps forward and there was no turning back. Santana took slow but sure steps in tandem with Puck and her father, but she was certain that she would be a puddle of tears by the end of that aisle because Brittany showed just how much she knew Santana by her song choice.

**This is my love song to you  
Let every woman know I'm yours  
So you can fall asleep each night, babe  
And know I'm dreaming of you more**

You're always hoping that we make it  
You always want to keep my gaze  
Well you're the only one I see  
And that's the one thing that won't change

Santana smiled as she played moments in her and Brittany's life together over in her head and when Puck stole a quick glance he was certain that he had never seen his best friend look that serene and happy ever. With every step he was losing his resolve and soon it wasn't just Santana who had tears in her eyes.  
**  
I'll never stop trying  
I'll never stop watching as you leave  
I'll never stop losing my breath  
Every time I see you looking back at me  
I'll never stop holding your hand  
I'll never stop opening your door  
I'll never stop choosing you babe  
I'll never get used to you  
**

Looking around Santana could see friends that Brittany had graduated with, professors from Julliard that Britt was close to along with a few members of her dance classes. She saw men and women in uniform, some of them her classmate, others were higher ranked officers that had served as Santana's commending officer at one time or another during her time at West Point. Their families filled in the front pews of the chapel and Santana had to keep her eyes forward because if she made eye contact with any of them she was sure she wouldn't be able to keep her tears in check

**And with this love song to you  
It's not a momentary phase  
You are my life, I don't deserve you  
But you love me just the same  
And as the mirror says we're older  
I will not look the other way  
You are my life, my love, my only  
And that's the one thing that won't change**

I'll never stop trying  
I'll never stop watching as you leave  
I'll never stop losing my breath  
Every time I see you looking back at me  
I'll never stop holding your hand  
I'll never stop opening your door  
I'll never stop choosing you babe  
I'll never get used to you

Still get my heart racing (you)  
Still get my heart racing (for you)  
Still get my heart racing (you)  
Still get my heart racing (for you)

**I'll never stop trying  
I'll never stop watching as you leave  
I'll never stop losing my breath  
Every time I see you looking back at me  
I'll never stop holding your hand  
I'll never stop opening your door  
I'll never stop choosing you babe  
I'll never get used to you  
**

As they reached the end of the aisle Santana could feel her father tighten his grip just a little. Santana looked at her father who was trying very hard to smile through the steady stream of tears that were freely flowing down his cheeks. Her father leaned over and gave his daughter a kiss on the cheek, which of course reduced them both into tears. Santana let go of Puck's arm for a moment and wrapped her arms around her father and hugged him tightly. He pulled back after a moment and smiled.

"You'll always be my baby." Santana smiled as her father kissed her forehead one more time before he took a small step backwards. Santana smiled through her tears and blew him and her mother one last kiss before allowing Puck to take her arm and walk them the rest of the way up the small set of stairs that led up to the alter. When they got there both of them just looed at each other before Puck let go of her arm only to wrap her up in a hug that both of them needed.

"You aren't going to cry on me are you Puckerman?" Puck pulled back slightly and laughed, "never, I just have something in my eye. You know that no bride has ever looked as beautiful as you do now."

"Just wait to you see my bride."

"I love you, you know that right?"

Santana smiled, "yeah I know, I love you too." Puck smiled, gave her one more quick kiss and took a step back so that he was standing in his place behind where Santana would be standing during the ceremony. "Go get your girl." Santana was beaming and she was sure that her face would crack from smiling as hard as she was but she turned around so that she was standing in front of Puck with Holly standing on the landing just behind her. Santana heard the double doors close to allow Brittany and Victor to stand behind them and Holly leaned down and whispered in her ear.

"You've come a long way from the scared girl sitting cross legged on the floor of my classroom." Santana looked at her teacher and laughed, "also Hummel did an amazing job on that dress, you look stunning." Santana whispered thank you and as she did the chapel was once again filled with music, but this time it was the music she chose for Brittany. Santana walked the three steps down so that she was waiting for Brittany on the stone floor instead of on the stairs. Of course with everyone still standing up it was going to be impossible for her to see Brittany until she was much closer.

**The day we met,**

**Frozen I held my breath**

**Right from the start**

**I knew that I'd found a home for my heart...**

**...beats fast**

**Colors and promises**

**How to be brave?**

**How can I love when I'm afraid to fall**

**But watching you stand alone?**

**All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow**

**One step closer**

Santana stood with her back to Brittany and she had told Quinn to signal her to turn around when Brittany was closer. She shut her eyes for a moment and just took in the moment she was in: she was waiting at the end of an aisle, waiting for her bride, her wife to be standing with her. Santana opened her eyes and brushed away a few stray tears.

**I have died everyday waiting for you**

**Darling don't be afraid I have loved you**

**For a thousand years**

**I'll love you for a thousand more**

**Time stands still**

**Beauty in all she is**

**I will be brave**

**I will not let anything take away**

**What's standing in front of me**

**Every breath**

**Every hour has come to this**

**One step closer**

Santana looked up to see Quinn standing on the opposite side of the alter and when she caught Santana starring at her she smiled, took a deep breath and pointed, signaling Santana to turn around and see Brittany. Santana took a deep breath and turned around only to have all the air sucked out of her lungs. Brittany was only about half way up the aisle, but Santana could finally see her and to say that she looked beautiful would be a vast understatement. When Santana managed to breath again she only managed to say one thing, but it was loud enough for those sitting near the front of the chapel to hear. She took one look at Brittany and said 'oh my god' just before she started brushing away tears.

**I have died everyday waiting for you**

**Darling don't be afraid I have loved you**

**For a thousand years**

**I'll love you for a thousand more**

**And all along I believed I would find you**

**Time has brought your heart to me**

**I have loved you for a thousand years**

**I'll love you for a thousand more**

Victor stopped right in front of Santana and turned to his oldest grandchild and whispered something in her ear, kissed her forehead and gave her a hug that had everyone brushing away some tears. He then turned to Santana and smiled before hugging her as well, but he held on just long enough to whisper in her ear. "You take care of her." Santana gave the man a kiss on his cheek, "always."

**I'll love you for a thousand more**

**One step closer**

With that he reached out a took Brittany's hand and put it in Santana's and with tears freely flowing down his face he kissed their joined hands before taking his seat next to Liz. Santana didn't care that she was supposed to wait to kiss Brittany and she leaned over and kissed her softly before offering her other hand and walking with her up the stairs to where holly stood with their wedding party.

**I have died everyday waiting for you**

**Darling don't be afraid I have loved you**

**For a thousand years**

**I'll love you for a thousand more**

**And all along I believed I would find you**

**Time has brought your heart to me**

**I have loved you for a thousand years**

**I'll love you for a thousand more**

When the music played out and both of the girls were standing in front of Holly everything got underway.

"Leave to two musical theater nerds to have an entrance that brings everyone to tears." Santana didn't expect anything less than her former teacher opening with a joke. "But in all seriousness everyone, I'm so honored to be able to stand up here today and officiate this ceremony. I remember walking into William McKinley one day, ready to sub for a teacher that was sick. Next thing I know I have these two sitting on the floor of my classroom looking for answers and I did my best to help them out, never expecting that this would be where they ended up. Let that be a lesson to al, there is no issue that Stevie Nicks can't make right, but I digress. These lovely ladies have written their own vows so break out the tissues folks. Brittany has requested to go first." Holly took a small step back and in the same moment Quinn handed Brittany a small stack of note cards that had her vows written on them.

"I know we grew up together and that even from the time we were babies we had some connection that our parents never understood. The first thing I remember you saying to me was that my hair was pretty and that I looked like a princess. Then you told me I could have your juice box and I knew I was in love." The whole congregation giggled and Santana blushed.

"I can't think of a time in my life that you weren't right there next to me; holding my hand, helping me with a hard problem in math class, telling me that the other kids were just jealous that I was so awesome. I'm not book smart, a least not enough to really have blown anyone away with my intelligence, but you always made me feel like I was a genius. You were the only person in my life aside from my family that didn't make me feel stupid. You built me up and made me feel like I could anything. When I told you I wanted to be astronaut you built me a space ship out of cardboard in the backyard. When I said that I wanted to be President you played Hail To the Chief on a kazoo every time I walked into a room. When I told you I wanted to be a dancer you bought me my first pair of ballet slippers. When I told you I loved you gave me this ring and I when I said I'd be your wife you gave me your last name. All our lives you have given me the greatest gift of loving me as I am. You never tried to make me something that I wasn't and you stood by through everything. When it would have been ok for you to turn away and say that you can't handle this anymore you held onto me tighter and made sure that I knew that regardless of my past you were going to make my future perfect just by being in it."

"I can't say for certain what our future is going to be like. I can't promise that it's going to be all perfect and that we won't face any hardships, but what I can promise is that through everything, there will never be a day that I don't love you with everything I have. I fell in love with you when we were little kids who didn't know what love was and I grew up to love you more and amore with every beat of my heart and I am so happy that for the rest of my life I get to call you my wife and maybe one day I'll have to call you mommy, for the sake of the kids. Like I said before I never spent a day without you in my life and now I won't ever have too because no matter where you are I get to say that you're my wife." Brittany smiled and handed the cards back to Quinn. She had held it together for most of her vows, but her eyes glistened with the tears she had fought back. Santana didn't fair as well, but that waterproof mascara was at least keeping her eye make up from running.

Once she had composed herself Santana took a deep breath before beginning. "I have been thinking about what I wanted to say to you since I bought that engagement ring and every time I write it down I think of something better so I finally decided against writing down. Forgive me for what is about to happen because I am going to speak from my heart and yes I do have one." Everyone laughed and Santana smiled before continuing.

"I could stand here and tell stories about how I always knew I loved you or the moment when I knew I was going to marry you, but we would be here for days. Instead I wanted to thank you and maybe that sounds odd but it occurred to me that I never thanked you for all the things you've done for me. I didn't always make it easy to love me and there were times that I know I hurt you, but for some reason I will never understand you keep loving me through all of it and that love is something I will never forget and I love you for it. I want to thank you for saving me when we were in high school. I wouldn't have survived that ordeal if you hadn't made it through and recovered. I know you hate being called a hero, but you will always be my champion, my hero. You have supported me in every dream I have ever had, even the stupid ones and I'm beyond happy that this dream, the one of spending my life with you panned out. Thank you for loving me when it wasn't easy, that you for saving my life, thank you for making it great by being a part of it."

"I don't know what I did in my life to deserve someone like you, but I'm so glad for it because I can't bear to think of spending one day without you in my life. I know that there will be days and months that we have to spend apart, but you have to know that no matter the distance there will never be a day that my heart won't find you. Ever since we had that wedding in your yard when we were kids I knew that I wanted a real one with you, I just never dreamt that it would ever happen and so today my wildest dream is coming true and I feel like it's still a dream. But to assure myself that this is real and that I wont wake up in ten minutes to the alarm clock going off I'm going to tell you the same thing I told you that day all those years ago. 'I promise you that you will always be my bestest friend and I will always love more than ice cream, unless it chocolate ship then we'll have to talk." Again everyone laughed and Santana shot Brittany a wink. "You are my best friend, my lover, my wife and one day I hope the mother of our kids and I really do love you more than ice cream." Coming from anyone else that would have sounded like a dumb thing to say in a wedding vow but for this wedding, it was the perfect thing Santana could have ever said to Brittany.

"Well, that was beautiful ladies and while I wish we could take more time to reflect on how you two should have been married a long time ago I must move us along to the fun part of the program. May I have the rings?" Puck reached into his pocket and pulled out both rings and handed them to Holly.

"Brittany take this ring and as you put it on Santana repeat after me. I Brittany, take you Santana to be my lawfully wedded wife, my partner in life and my one true love."

"**I Brittany, take you Santana to be my lawfully wedded wife, my partner in life and my one true love."**

"I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before."

"**I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before."**

"I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together."

"**I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together."**

"I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live."

"**I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live."** Brittany finished speaking as she secured the ring to Santana's ring finger. Santana's hand was shaking hard when she picked up Brittany's ring and repeated the same vow to Brittany.

"I Santana, take you Brittany to be my lawfully wedded wife, my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live."

With their vow said Santana and Brittany recited a passage from the Bible that they thought would be a nice way to end their vows. "Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you, For where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. And where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord do with me and more if anything but death parts you from me."

With the rings on their fingers, tears flowing down their faces and smiles that were wider than anyone thought possible Holly moved into the final part of the ceremony.

"Now at the risk of anyone doing something stupid I have to ask if there are any objections." Santana shot a look that could kill into the congregation so if anyone had thought about saying anything that would have stopped them.

"Fantastic, now for the fun part. By the power invested in my by the grand state of New York who dragged their feet in allowing same sex marriage but oh well, and by the website where I printed my certificate from, I know pronounce you **legally **married. You may now kiss your respective bride." Santana didn't really wait until she could be told to kiss Brittany, but the kiss wasn't inappropriate at all, in fact you could see the love they had for each other in that one intimate moment. When they pulled apart, all smiles, Holly held up her arms and basically shouted, "Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you Lieutenant and Mrs. Santana Lopez." Santana gave Brittany one more kiss before they started back down the aisle; all the while their friends and family were on their feet, crying and clapping for them both.

When they got to the bridal suite where they had to wait before they could go take more pictures Santana took Brittany in her arms kissed her again and laughed, "this was so much better than the wedding we had when we were little."

"Well I would hope so, when we were five I couldn't kiss you like this." Brittany returned them to that kiss which led to making out, which led to them being slightly late for those photos, but they would be the first ones to tell you that it was well worth it.

**So there we go they are married and I start second semester of grad school on Monday so tomorrow is me resting, doing my reading and getting ready to go back to it. Hope this was up to expectations and review if yo want to see something specific in later chapters.**


	9. Reception Part 1

**So sorry about the delay on this one guys, my clinical internship applications are being sent out on Monday and they have consumed my life. Hopefully you can all forgive me and enjoy the reception chapter.**

Once the service was over Santana, Brittany and the wedding party were kept back so that they could take pictures as a group. After about 45 minutes the photographers had all the pictures they needed and told Santana and Brittany that they would meet them at the reception location. The wedding party had their own limo that would take them to the reception hall, thus allowing Santana and Brittany to have some time to themselves on their way to the party. Once inside their own limo the two women looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh.

"We did it, we got married." Brittany was happier than Santana had ever seen her. She leaned forward and kissed her wife…her wife; Santana loved the sound of that word in her head.

"Yeah we did it babe." Santana laced her fingers with Brittany's, "I told you we would get married for real one day and I never break promises that I make to you."

"You spoil me." Brittany smiled and Santana shook her head. "No I respect you." They cuddled together in the backseat and didn't say much for the rest of the ride to the party. They were both looking forward to the celebration, but it was going to be a crazy party and this time in the limo was their last chance to just enjoy being alone together for the next several hours. When the car pulled up in front of the location Santana couldn't help but feel the same excitement that Brittany was feeling. Quinn was standing outside the entrance and as soon as they got out of the limo she made her way over to them.

"Hm, hair seems to be in place, dresses aren't in disarray, if I didn't know you any better I would say that you didn't try to have sex in the limo."

"For your information Queerio we restrained ourselves." Brittany poked Santana's side to remind her to lay off the nicknames. Quinn rolled her eyes, but laughed in spite of the nickname. "Well, everyone is inside and seated, they just lined us up and we were just waiting for us for go in." Quinn held the door open so that her friends could walk in and she quickly followed behind them. The DJ was cued and began to introduce the wedding party as Brittany and Santana stood side by side behind all their friends. Santana and Brittany were both in their own world and literally only got shocked back into reality when the DJ announced them, cueing them to walk into the reception hall.

"And now ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honor to present to you for the first time as legally married wives, Lt. and Mrs. Santana Lopez." The doors into the main hall were once again opened to allow Santana and Brittany to enter. As they stepped inside all theirs guest stood and cheered, clapping feverishly as the young couple walked into the flawlessly decorated hall. As Santana walked toward the main table with Brittany's hand grasped tightly in her own she looked around the hall and was so happy that they had chosen that location for the reception. They had spent a long time debating the location for the party, but had ultimately decided on the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame. The museum rented out their space for weddings and receptions and Santana wanted more than anything to give Brittany a reception in the famous dance institution. She knew that while she was in the military Brittany's dream of owning a dance studio would probably only ever be a dream. They would be moving too much and setting down those kinds of roots would never really pan out so Santana was committed to give Brittany a wedding reception in a place that embodied the very best of dance and dancers. And the fact that is was elegant and beautiful didn't hurt.

The couple sat down and once everyone was settled back into their seats the servers started bringing out their food and pour drinks for everyone. The hall was buzzing with a hundred conversations and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves so Santana let herself relax and enjoy this time with her wife and their family and friends. Once some time had passed and most people had finished their meals the DJ handed Puck the microphone.

"How's it going everyone? Feel free to keep on eating and what not, but this is that part of the day where we make every cry with heartfelt speeches. Eventually Quinn and I will be speaking, but we are going to begin with the people, without which we would all be doing something else right now. The parents and grandparents of my lovely friends up here are going to regale you with funny stories of these ladies in their youth as well as tug at your heartstrings with advice about love and life. So without wasting any more time, I graciously hand over the microphone to Victor." Puck handed the mic to the older gentlemen and took his seat next to Santana.

"Hello everyone and let me take a moment to welcome you all to this fabulous celebration that I know many of you have waited for for many years, but I guarantee you none of you have waited as long as my wife and I have. I'm sure many of you have heard this story before, but humor an old man and let him have his moment. When Brittany was very young we had made the trip out to Ohio to visit and when we got there we met this absolutely fascinating little girl who clung to my granddaughter like glue. Santana followed Brittany around like a puppy and whatever Brittany wanted, Brittany got. During that visit we witnessed my granddaughter and Santana having a pretend wedding in the backyard and I couldn't stop myself from laughing. They went all out for this ceremony, even going so far as to line up their toys to be stand in guests. They wore toilet paper as veils and if memory serves Santana picked a weed from the grass and used it as a flower." Santana blushed at the memory and Brittany kissed her now bright red cheek.

"My wife and I watched that wedding and wondered what would become of these two little girls. Liz said that they would probably end up being best friends, inseparable for the rest of their lives. I agreed but I saw something that day that made me think that one day their friendship would be something more. Of course at the time I didn't know what that was, but as they grew up we saw from a far that Santana was becoming much more than a best friend to Brittany. When I met Santana as an adult it was instantly clear to me. Her acts of heroism, her love for Brittany, her loyalty to her loved ones spoke volumes to her character and I knew in that moment that this woman belonged in my family. Today it fills my old heart with the greatest amount of joy to look at these two wonderful women and see them so much in love. When I started writing this speech I asked my wife for some help because I have never been very good at being mushy without becoming very emotional. She told me to tell a story and technically I've done that so she told me to offer some advice, so here it goes. Number one: your wife is always right and to be perfectly honest I have no idea how that helps when you are both women, but there you go. Number two: no argument is worth winning if you have to raise your voice. Number three: always offer to go get the baby when it cries, no matter how tired you are. Number four and this one is important: it's ok to fight, its ok to be upset or hurt because of something the other person did, but when those moments happen you have to remind yourselves that there was a time in your lives that you risked your life to save each other and no fight can ruin that kind of love and commitment."

"I know the feeling you get when you finally get to look at the person you love and say that woman is my wife. I have the honor of saying that I have been married to the love of my life for 45 years and when I look at my granddaughter and the wonderful woman she has married I know that I am looking at a marriage that will withstand the test of time. Since the moment I held her when she was born I wanted Brittany to have the very best and that prayer got answered the day became best friends with Santana Lopez. Today it was the hardest thing I have ever done to let go of my granddaughter at that alter, but the woman her took her hand after I let it go is the only person I trust to love Brittany the way she absolutely deserves. So I would like to propose a toast to the happy couple. You both have been through so much in your young loves just so you can be with each other and no two people on this earth deserve a long happy life more than the two of you. So I raise my glass to Santana and Brittany, may that long happy life be full of love, laughter, the chatter of children and at the end of each day may you both be reminded that you are living the dream because you married your best friend and no one can ever take that away from you. Cheers." Everyone cheered and clapped and Santana and Brittany were both trying to keep their emotions in check. Brittany stood up and went over and gave her grandfather a hug that communicated more than words ever could. She returned to her seat and as she sat back down Victor handed over the microphone to Angela.

"Well I'm sure you are all looking forward to hearing me give a tearful speech about how much I love my daughter and Brittany and God only knows I could bring you all to your knees in laughter with the dirt I have on Santana from her youth, but I won't do that." Santana blushed and shot her mother a relieved look.

"But when I told me husband we needed to make a speech he immediately said 'you do it' and he left the room. Now that may sound a little odd coming from the father of the bride, but I wasn't surprised at all. I found my husband a few hours later, sitting in his office watching old home movies, flipping through photo albums and in general just pouring over the last two decades of Santana's life. I stood behind him and watched the video of Santana trying to blow out her birthday cake on her third birthday only to have Brittany finally show her how. We watched Santana trying to learn how to ride her bike and when she fell down you saw Brittany come running in from off screen. And we saw the recording of a Cherrios competition that ended with Brittany jumping into Santana's arms, all smiles. My husband shut off the TV and without even looking at me he asked, 'they've loved each other since they were babies, haven't they?' I laughed and told him that it certainly appeared to be that way. He paused and said, 'I feel like I tucked her in to bed one night and she was 6 years old and when she woke up the next morning she was in her twenties."

"I knew in that moment what my husband was struggling with: he felt like he blinked and Santana went from being his little girl to being an adult with a wife and career in the military. He broke his own silence and said, 'I don't want to make the speech, if I do I have to admit that my baby grew up." Santana felt a pang in her heart as her mother spoke. She locked eyes with her father who was trying to be strong, but was already brushing away tears. He smiled back at his daughter and blew her a kiss.

"I told my husband, 'she did grow up, she's an adult, a soldier, a college graduate and she is about to be someone's wife. And yes she and Brittany have loved each other all their lives, but she will always be your baby and she will always love her daddy. You loved her first, that will always mean something.' He nodded and stood up for his chair and looked at me, eyes full of tears and he said, 'just remind them not to blink'. Both my husband and I know that things can change in an instant, in that blink of an eye so my advice is to live every moment and enjoy it for what it is. As much as we wish Santana was still a little girl, we are so very proud of the young woman she has become and the fact that now Brittany is officially, legally part of our family we could not be happier. There has never been a time in Santana's life where Brittany wasn't right there by her side and after today I know that that day will never come. So my husband and I would like to toast our daughter and our new daughter in law. I know that now you both have each other, but just remember that there is always a path that leads you home to your family and that you are never too old to need you family to help you out. So I raise my glass to the two beautiful brides: may their love story be just a beautiful as a fairytale and last twice as long." Glasses clinked and everyone once again cheered. Angela sat down but Santana quickly made her way over to her parents and hugged her mother tightly. She knelt down in front of her father and mumbled something to him in Spanish that Brittany couldn't hear from where she was standing a few feet behind her wife, but whatever it was it left both her and her father in a mess of tears.

Everyone calmed down and Puck picked up the microphone again. "Alright everyone that was a lot of tears and happy memories, so we have it set up like this. We are going to have the father-daughter dance give everyone a chance to just enjoy and let these proud parents enjoy their daughters. After that musical interlude Quinn and I will be speaking very briefly and then the dance floor will be open for everyone to bust out their best dance moves for the rest of the evening. So without further ado, let's get this father-daughter dance underway." Puck nodded to the DJ who set up the song while Brittany and Santana got up and met their respective father figures on the dance floor. As the music started all four of them began to slowly dance all the while trying to hold back the tears.

Look at the two of you dancing that way

Lost in the moment and each others face

So much in love you're alone in this place

Like there's nobody else in the world

I was enough for her not long ago

I was her number one

She told me so

And she still means the world to me

Just so you know

So be careful when you hold my girl

Time changes everything

Life must go on

And I'm not gonna stand in your way

But I loved her first and I held her first

And a place in my heart will always be hers

From the first breath she breathed

When she first smiled at me

I knew the love of a father runs deep

And I prayed that she'd find you someday

But it still hard to give her away

I loved her first

How could that beautiful women with you

Be the same freckle face kid that I knew

The one that I read all those fairy tales to

And tucked into bed all those nights

And I knew the first time I saw you with her

It was only a matter of time

But I loved her first and I held her first

And a place in my heart will always be hers

From the first breath she breathed

When she first smiled at me

I knew the love of a father runs deep

And I prayed that she'd find you someday

But its still hard to give her away

I loved her first

From the first breath she breathed

When she first smiled at me

I knew the love of a father runs deep

Someday you might know what I'm going through

When a miracle smiles up at you

I loved her first

As the music died out each man held onto their daughter for a moment and after sharing one more kiss and hug the two brides returned to their seats and with heavy hearts the men returned to their table and sat down next to their wives. Once the girls had time to settle down and collect themselves Puck nodded to Quinn, encouraging her to get up and begin her maid of honor speech.

**Ok so I needed desperately to split this chapter up because it was getting long winded. Hope you guys liked it so far and I will have more up soon. I wanted to do the father-daughter dance first and next chapter I will do the first dance as a married couple. Please review.**


	10. Reception Part 2

**Thanks for being patient everyone. School and work are super busy, as usual, but I haven't forgotten this story or any of you guys. So this chapter will be Quinn and Puck's speeches and the first couple dance so it might be a bit lengthy.**

Once the father daughter dance had finished and everyone was settled back in their seats, Quinn stood up at went over to the DJ's booth where she was handed one of the microphones.

"Hey everyone, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we have two more speeches for you all to suffer through before they bring out the cake and get to more dancing." Everyone laughed and Quinn relaxed a little bit and unfolded the piece of paper she had in her hand. She took a deep breath before launching into her speech. "Most times when people make these wedding speeches they talk about how the couple met and how it was meant to be, but you have all been told those stories already today so I thought I would try something different. I have a unique relationship with Santana and Brittany, but mine doesn't go back 20 plus years. I met them both on the first day of freshmen year. I had just finished signing my name to the Cheerios try out list when this blonde girl came running in, she stopped just shy of knocking me down. She was pulling another girl behind her and whoever she was I knew she looked pissed. The blonde quickly scribbled her name and when I saw it I had to laugh, Brittany. Of course her name was Brittany. But before I could really process who she was, she quickly wrote out one more name, Santana. The brunette groaned, 'Britt I don't want to be the first people to sign up, we should go with my idea and just walk into the first practice and take charge." As Quinn painted a picture of their first moments of high school Santana laughed and couldn't help but remember that first day.

"I laughed in her face when she said that and told her that if she thought she was such hot stuff to prove it. Brittany turned to me and said and I quote 'my Sanny is the best at everything.' It was at this point that I made the single greatest mistake in my life. I laughed and said that if she was the best to prove it and that only an idiot would blindly believe in someone like that. The second I said the word idiot; I regretted it for two reasons. First off, Brittany looked like she was about to start crying and second; Santana had her hand at my throat before I could even react. She got within an inch of my face and said that if I ever called her Brittany anything other than her name that she would do much much more than steal head captain from me. She let go of me and grabbed Brittany's hand, making sure to shoot me a dirty look as they walked away. I realized that I was up against a formidable opponent and I saw just how much of a threat they both were at tryouts. Santana was just as good as Brittany said and Brittany blew everyone away. After the first interaction I got a second chance to get to know them, both of them and Santana and I figured out that we were going to butt heads until our dying breaths because we are so alike. From that day forward we all three of us had this connection that translated into us being the three badest bitches at McKinley, a reputation that earned us a nickname that puts the Three Musketeers to shame. We became known as the Unholy Trinity, a name we should always be proud of." Everyone smiled and laughed at the odd nickname.

"Over time that hostility softened into a mild dislike and eventually Santana and I became friends. I'm not sure when it happened, when we all became best friends, but I am beyond happy that it did. Like everyone else, I saw the side glances, the hand holding when it wasn't needed and the slumber parties that ended with them holding each other tightly. For a brief moment I thought about saying something to them, but I knew how scared Santana was about the truth coming out. We didn't know it at the time, but like so many other things in our lives, we shared that fear and maybe that was why I never said anything, I just let them be. I hoped and prayed that in time Santana would grow a pair and stop hiding and she did and today seeing where their journey has led is an honor I never thought I would ever get to witness. Being mushy with Brittany is easy because, well, she's Brittany, but being open and talking about feelings with Santana can get messy and for that reason it has been something the two of us have avoided doing throughout our friendship." Santana offered Quinn a smile and the blonde kept going.

"But I'm going to break that unspoken rule today. First to Brittany: you can call it fate, destiny or sheer good luck, but I thank God everyday that you two found each other. There is this light in her eyes that I'm sure is only there because of you. You saw through every layer, every wall she ever put up and you made sure that everyone knew just how wonderful and special she was and I think we can all thank you for that. I personally was very touched when you asked me to be your maid of honor because in my mind it was one more way I could thank you for all that you have done for me. I know you hate being hailed as a hero, but what you did that day for me, for all of us in that room, will never be forgotten. Without you there is a very possibility that I wouldn't be here right now, so I will say it one more time and then we will never speak about it again: it was my pleasure to stand up next to you as you started you life with Santana because you stood up for me that day and I will love you forever for that. So a toast to Brittany, the lovable blonde that showed every last one of us that true beauty and strength come from within and that true love really does conquer all." Brittany brushed away stray tears and Santana kissed her cheek as every raised their glasses to toast her wife.

"And Santana: this cocky solider thinks that I can't make her cry, but we will see. Despite all the crap we put each other through you are my best friend. That first day, I hated you so much, but all these years later, I realize that I never hated you a day in my life. I looked into your eyes that day with your hand clutching my throat and I was scared because I saw a familiar pain in your eyes, a fear that I knew all too well. You and I were hiding a world full of fear, pain and uncertainty behind the facades of the queen bees of a school in the middle of nowhere. We were the lucky ones: we found each other, we found Glee, found music and in the same beautiful moment we pulled our heads out of the sand and realized that there were these magnificent women waiting there to love us. You and I hate being serious because we get emotional, but I'm going to tell you something right now. With the exception of my daughter, I've never more proud of anyone in my entire life than I am of you." Santana tried to put on a straight face, but there was a reason that she and Quinn never talked seriously, they both would end up in tears. Quinn continued to speak through her own tears.

"You grew up into the amazing, strong woman who doesn't live her life to please anyone, you live your life for you and your wife and that takes guts Santana. You had this dream of getting out of Lima and I think anyone who ever stepped foot in Lima had that same dream, but you did it, all on your own you did it. You did something that no one ever thought you would do and you did it well. You got into a school that prepares you for a life of service in some dangerous situations, but you jumped into it head first and look at you now: an education people would kill for and a career to be proud of. I'm so happy that you and Brittany finally got your happy ending because no two people deserve it more. I would like to propose a toast to you, my dear, dear friend. That day, all those years ago I was looking at a girl who was afraid of the world and didn't know what her next step was going to be. That girl doesn't exist anyone: she grew up into this stunning, intelligent women, a soldier who walks with a sense of purpose, head held high and that passion, that fire I saw that day in the hallway is still very much alive in your eyes today. I am so unbelievably proud of you and may the rest of your life be everything you ever wished for and much more. To Santana: 'We held on to each other and looked out at the sea. It was impossibly large and full of beauty and danger in equal parts - and we wanted it all." Quinn held up her glass and so did every one else in the room. There were no dry eyes in the entire reception hall, least of all Quinn's and Santana's. When Quinn handed the microphone to Puck she began to walk to her seat, but before she even got back to the head table Santana had made her way over to her best friend. Santana almost never offered hugs to anyone, it just wasn't her style, but before Quinn could say anything Santana had thrown her arms around the blonde and the tears started all over again. After they had managed to calm down, they pulled away just enough so that their foreheads were touching.

"You're a jerk for making me cry this much."

"You love it."

"I love you, and all the stuff you said about me and Britt, that was probably the nicest stuff anyone has ever said about me."

"I meant every word."

" I know you did, that's why I 'm crying." They both walked back to their seats and Puck stood up from his seat.

"Wow, what an act to follow." Everyone laughed and it seemed to refocus the energy of the room.

"Look everyone I think I said all the mushy stuff I wanted to last night at the rehearsal, but today I wanted to say something very brief. All us Glee kids have been watching Brittany and Santana pretend to be just friend for years. The day that changed everyone breathed this huge sigh of relief because instead of pretending like we didn't see the way Santana's face lit up whenever Brittany walked into the room or the way Brittany would smile like a fool whenever Santana preformed any song, we got to celebrate our friends finally being honest about being happy. Brittany is the easiest person to love. It's like loving a puppy, she is so full of love and joy and she reminds you of the goodness that stills exists in this world, so it never surprised me that Santana fell in love with her. Santana and I are cut from the same cloth: we push people away, afraid that they will see how vulnerable we really are underneath this tough exterior. But thank god Brittany saw through that front and never stopped loving Santana even when my friend acted like a first class ass. So Brittany I just have to say thank you, because by loving her, you taught Santana that there was something beautiful in her, something we all loved and by doing that you showed her that it was ok to let people in and let them love you. And Santana…." Puck trialed off and took a deep breath, trying to not cry, but it wasn't working. He looked straight at Santana and smiled. "I've done some stupid things, I've hurt people who didn't deserve it and I'm not the smartest person in this world, but when everyone else gave up on me, you stayed." Santana started to slowly cry again as Puck finished.

"You made me work harder and show them how smart I really am, you made want to be a better person so that I could make amends with the people I hurt and when everyone else gave up you reached out to me and inspired me to ignore them and do something that made me proud of myself. We did our training and our educations side by side and I will stand with you through hell and make sure we both come home from ever deployment we ever have together. Of all the people I know in this world, you are the one that has inspired me the most, inspired me to be the man you always knew I could be. You have had a profound influence on my life and seeing you so happy today, with your wife by your side, makes me feel like the universe finally got the message that you deserve every ounce of happiness this world has to offer. So I raise my glass, as should all of you to celebrate the happy couple: may they grow old sharing the same pillow. To Santana and Brittany." Everyone raised their glasses for the finally time and toasted the happy couple. Santana was once again crying and she walked over to Puck before he climbed up to the DJ booth. She tapped him on the shoulder and her turned around to face her.

"You are a bigger jerk than Quinn, this make up took hours to get on."

"You never get to hear all the good stuff you've done for people, I wasn't going to let this chance go by without telling you how very much I love you and all you've done for me."

"What you've done with your life is because of you Puck, not because of me." Puck made Santana look him in the eye.

"You loved me when I made it impossible to love me, when everyone else had walked away, you still loved me and believed in the goodness in me. I may be standing here because I worked hard, but you made me believe in myself and I will never forget that and neither should you. You are without a doubt, one of the best thing to have ever happened to me and I am honored to call you my friend." Santana wrapped her arms around Puck and started crying into his uniform and everyone watched in quiet reverence as the two best friends took that time to be vulnerable and let those walls down. When they broke apart and Santana returned to Brittany, Puck spoke into the mic again.

"Alright everyone, how about we get this party really started? If my best friend will kindly fix her make up and then join her wife on the dance floor we are all about to witness their first dance as legally married wives." Puck set up everything with the DJ as Santana touched up her make up and joined Brittany on the dance floor. Quinn stood next to Puck on the small stage next to the DJ and it became clear to everyone that the two of them would be singing the first dance instead of letting the Dj just play the song.

"This song was what Brittany danced to during her senior showcase and the two lovely ladies before me decided that it was the perfect song to dance to as their first married dance together. And since no CD can touch live music, Quinn and I will be serenading our best friends, so without further ado ladies and gentlemen, dancing together for the first time in their married life, Lt. Santana Lopez and her blushing bride Brittany Susan Lopez." Santana quickly put her arms around Brittany and the two of them started moving as soon as Puck strummed the intro to the song on his guitar.

(Quinn)

We were strangers, starting out on a journey

Never dreaming, what we'd have to go through

Now here we are, I'm suddenly standing

At the beginning with you

(Puck)

No one told me I was going to find you

Unexpected, what you did to my heart

When I lost hope, you were there to remind me

This is the start

And life is a road that I wanna keep going

Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing

Life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey

I'll be there when the world stops turning

I'll be there when the storm is through

In the end I wanna be standing

At the beginning with you

We were strangers, on a crazy adventure

Never dreaming, how our dreams would come true

Now here we stand, unafraid of the future

At the beginning with you

And life is a road that I wanna keep going

Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing

Life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey

I'll be there when the world stops turning

I'll be there when the storm is through

In the end I wanna be standing

At the beginning with you

Knew there was somebody, somewhere

A new love in the dark

Now I know my dream will live on

I've been waiting so long

Nothing's gonna tear us apart

And life is a road that I wanna keep going

Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing

Life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey

I'll be there when the world stops turning

I'll be there when the storm is through

In the end I wanna be standing

At the beginning with you

In the end I want to be standing

At the beginning with you

**Super amounts of sorry for this being very late, but I'm about to start midterms and life has been crazy, but hopefully you will all forgive me. Leave reviews if the mood strikes you. Thanks **


	11. Moving Day

**Sorry for the long wait everyone, I was very busy with finals week which ended for me so now I have two weeks of vacation and no doubt I will be using that time to catch up on my stories, starting with this one. I'm happy with the reception chapters so I am moving on to them moving to North Carolina.**

It seemed like their honeymoon came and went in the same breath, maybe because it only lasted about a week, but sadly that was all the time they could afford. When they got back from their trip both Santana and Brittany knew that they had a lot of work left to do before they packed up the moving van. Most of the major packing was done before the wedding came around, but now that they were in the home stretch the hardest obstacle they were facing wasn't fitting everything in boxes; it was figuring out how to properly say goodbye.

When the alarm clock went off that morning Santana quickly shit off the blaring noise before it woke Brittany up. Truthfully, Santana had been awake for hours and had been lying perfectly still in the air mattress she and Brittany were currently sleeping on because their bed was already packed in plastic protectors for the move. Making sure to open the door quietly, Santana slipped downstairs and grabbed a mug out of the dishwasher and filled it with coffee. Just as she was about to take a sip her phone buzzed in her pocket. Santana read the message grabbed a second mug, filled it with coffee and walked out the front door with both mugs in hand. The sun wasn't up yet and yet Quinn was standing in the Lopez's driveway looking like she was ready for action. Santana handed her best friend the second mug and the two of them walked over to the step that led up to the front door and they sat down on the top step. They sat like that in perfect silence for a few minutes and when their coffee was gone they were faced with the thing they had been avoiding for months.

"Please don't make me say it." Quinn pleaded with Santana and all Santana could do was shake her head.

"We're gonna have to eventually, I mean we officially ran out of time to say good..."

"No, we can have a few more minutes without saying it." Santana was certain that the whole process of saying goodbye that day was hardest on Quinn.

"Fine, but I'm gonna say all the other things that we usually don't say to each other." Santana played with her fingers, trying desperately to not look Quinn in the eye, "I love you, like in a way I don't love anyone else on this planet. Puck is my bro, Brittany is my wife, my parents are my parents and the glee kids are my extended family, but you…you are the biggest pain in my ass and I love you so much for it." Quinn didn't know what to say and so Santana kept going.

"I'm sorry I gave you shit when you were pregnant. I shouldn't have been that big of a jerk. You needed support and a friend and I was so lost that I couldn't see that and I'm sorry. But even though it always looked like I hated you, I loved you through all of it, I just couldn't show it, but I swear to you that as sure as I am sitting here, I loved you through every second of it." Quinn reached over and held Santana's hand.

"I know you did, it's ok, you can't actually think that after all this stuff we survived that I would hold that one thing against you?"

"It wasn't just one thing and you know it."

"I know, but it was stupid teenage shit and I was just as awful to you, but underneath all of it we both knew that we would walk through a brick wall for each other."

"You know that Britt and I would do absolutely anything for you right? Like honestly just name it."

"Your wife saved my life. You owe me nothing. That only thing I ever want from either of you is for you to come home in one piece and to one day be told that I'm an Aunt."

"Deal." Santana brushed tears away from her eyes and went back to looking straightforward. "It's funny I've never more terrified and excited for something to happen in my whole life."

"Not even on your wedding day?" Quinn smiled and tried to joke with Santana.

"I always knew we'd get married, I never saw this big of a change coming you know. I always knew I'd marry her, first chance I got, then I'd pack up everything we own and get the hell out of this cow town, but this was not how I ever imagined it. Never thought it would be this hard to do either, I mean shit we spent the last few years of our lives hating this place and now it breaks my heart to say goodbye."

"Your plans changed Santana, but your goal hasn't. You are doing something, starting a career that will help shape your future with Brittany and it gets you out of this town in a big way. You accomplished your goal, just in a different way than you planned and that is ok. It's also ok to admit that you will miss home."

"You'll be ok right, I mean New York isn't too scary right?" Santana smiled for the first time in the entire conversation.

"I handled it for four years without your ass next to me didn't I?"

"Yeah you did, and no doubt you'll be fine without me there. Just don't do anything stupid or I swear to god I will kick your ass." Quinn laughed softly and then one final silence fell over them and they knew they had to say it.

"If we don't say it now, we'll say it later with an audience." Santana stood up and held out her hand to Quinn to take. When she pulled the blonde to her feet she didn't give Quinn a chance to recover before she wrapped her up in a hug.

"You promise me one thing." Quinn could already hear her friend voice crack and she was about to lose it.

"Anything."

"When I leave, when that day comes. Promise me you'll be there because I can't leave her alone and get on that airplane Quinn, I just can't." Quinn held Santana closer to her and they just cried, both of them for several minutes before Quinn pulled back just enough to look Santana in the eye.

"You have my word, when that day comes I will be there to see you off and I will make sure she isn't alone." Quinn brushed tears out of Santana's eyes and smiled through her own. "I don't have a lot to be proud of Santana, but I am so proud of you. Damn it I'm gonna miss you." The two of them stayed that way for another five minutes, not saying another word, crying into each other's shirts and trying to ignore the all to familiar pang of hurt in their hearts. What they didn't know was that Brittany was, by this point, wide-awake and standing in the kitchen nursing her own cup of coffee. That was where Angela found her when the older woman finally made her way downstairs.

"How long have you been awake?"

"About 15 minutes." Angela looked at the scene that Brittany was watching and smiled.

"And how long have they been out there?"

"About 15 minutes."

"Do they know that you've been watching them?"

"Nope and I am not gonna tell them. They needed to say their goodbye before there were other people around making it impossible. They always had a weird relationship and they always needed some space to figure it out, today is no different." Brittany pulled some cereal out of the cupboard and went about trying to eat something before things got underway with the packing of the moving truck.

"Did you get enough sleep last night?" Brittany shook her head, "Santana woke up at about 2am and she thought I didn't notice, but I did. I slept a little bit after that, but not much."

"Will the two of you be ok to drive with such little sleep?"

"We'll play it safe and switch off every few hours, whoever isn't driving can sleep."

"Sounds like you guys have it planned out."

"We knew sleep wasn't going to come easy last night so we just kind of hedged out bets on this one." Their conversation was cut off when the front door opened and both Santana and Quinn stepped inside, both of them trying to look like they hadn't been crying.

"Puck called. He just picked up the truck and is heading over now." Santana went over to Brittany, gave her wife a kiss and stole a bite of her food.

"You need to eat more than that."

"Rachel said she and Kurt were picking up breakfast stuff and extra coffee so I will eat whatever they bring I promise." Santana put her hair up in a ponytail before turning back to Quinn. "Quinn and I are gonna go open the garage up and bring the last of the stuff from upstairs."

"Don't forget the two boxes in the bathroom please." Brittany yelled after Santana as she and Quinn disappeared upstairs. They returned five minutes later each holding a box.

"I checked and I think we have all the boxes in the garage, but we should do a second pass to make sure."

"I'll do it, you go open the garage and help Puck pull that damn truck into the driveway. This will be his third attempt and he is about to hit your parent's mailbox." Santana looked put the window and sure enough Puck was struggling to back the truck up properly. She put the box down and quickly ran outside to stop Puck from doing any permanent damage to her parents yard. Brittany laughed as she watched Santana order Puck out of the truck, only to get in the driver's seat herself and back the truck up perfectly on her first attempt. Santana jumped down from the truck and Puck shook his head.

"Beginners luck."

"Luck my ass, that my friend is proof that my depth perception is better than yours. Don't feel too bad about it though, I'm just that good. Now if you can swallow you pride and put away your ego for a while then perhaps you can come give me a hand with the garage." The two of them slowly opened the garage door, revealing a completely packed garage, full of boxes that were carefully color coordinated and organized perfectly.

"Jesus Santana, it looks like someone with OCD packed your stuff."

"Brittany has been reading all the blogs about them losing stuff in the move and even though we are doing this move on our own she wanted to be super careful about how we packed and labeled everything."

"Well you want to start putting the big stuff in?"

"Let's wait till my dad is up, that dresser is going to take at least two people pulling it up and two pushing it." The two of them headed back inside and as soon as they closed the door the bell rang. Santana opened the door without looking because she deep down already knew who was about to come barging through her door.

"Morning all, are we ready for moving day. I brought pastries and Lima Bean coffee." Rachel came through the front door like a tornado with Kurt shuffling slowly behind, clearly showing signs that he was not a morning person like Rachel was. Rachel put the food on the counter and gave Quinn a quick kiss before turning to Santana.

"So I saw the garage door open, I presume that we are about ready to start."

"Take a breath Berry. As soon as my dad comes down we can start." As if on cue Santana's dad and brother both came downstairs and made there way outside into the front yard.

"Alrighty then everyone. Grab something to eat, a thing of coffee and meet me outside." Santana was about to walk outside when her brother came back in.

"How many friends were you expecting to come help this morning?"

"Just the people in the kitchen, why?"

"You have a shit ton of people out here." Santana pushed her brother out of the way and when she stepped outside, sure enough, the vast majority was getting out their cars and standing on her parent's lawn. Finn looked up and saw Santana staring.

"We figured the more people you had the faster this would go, you get you on the road sooner."

"Desperate to get rid of me eh Finn?"

"You found me out."

"Well, come on over to the garage and I'll put you all to work." Santana explained what the label system was and how they needed to load the truck. Finn, Puck, Santana and her dad made quick work of the big pieces of furniture and then let everyone slowly help fill up the rest of the truck by handing boxes to her and Puck who were standing in the cavity of the truck. About an hour later, they were about ¾ done and Santana and Puck were both dripping wet with sweat so they decided to take a quick break and let Finn, Rachel and Quinn do the final group of boxes. Santana reached down to hand a box to Quinn when her dad came into the garage saying that there was someone there to see her. Santana looked around the corner of the garage and saw Holly standing on her parent porch. She practically threw the box at Quinn and took off running into the yard.

She made it to the front porch before Holly even saw her coming and Santana damn near tackled the older woman to the ground in a hug.

"Are you really that happy to see me?"

"You have no idea." Santana finally loosened her grip on her one time teacher turned friend.

"Anything I can do to help out?"

"They are just loading the last little bit, but thank you. If you don't mind hanging out for a few minutes, I am going to run through a fast shower and change."

"Take your time, I'm staying until you leave."

"You got up early on a Saturday just to come cry on the sidewalk with the rest of the gang?"

"Sure did sweet cheeks."

"Then you are crazier than I once thought." Santana smiled and went inside the house to clean up, leaving Holly downstairs with Angela and Brittany. Santana quickly showered and got dressed. She finished packing their travel stuff in the duffle bag she and Brittany were going to be sharing while they were on the road. With one quick glance around the room to make sure they had everything, Santana realized that everything was in the truck, her room was completely empty and it was time to go. With tears threatening to fall Santana picked up the duffle bag, swung it over her shoulder and took one last moment to say goodbye to the room she had grown up in. A lot of things had happened in that room: things that Santana remembers with a heavy heart like when she was 10 and her mom told her that her grandfather had died, but that room held happy memories to her favorite being the first time she kissed Brittany. That room held a lot of firsts for her and Brittany and Santana was sure that that was why it hurt her so much to shut the damn door.

"Santana." Santana was shocked out of her memories when Brittany called her name. She turned around and Brittany was standing there looking at Santana like she knew exactly what was bothering her wife.

"You are my wife now, we'll always have our first time, but it's ok to leave the bedroom baby. Those memories got us here; we aren't leaving them behind, we're just leaving to make new ones." Brittany held out her hand and with a sad smile Santana took her wife's hand and as they walked out of the room she shut the door behind them. They got downstairs and Santana loaded the duffle bag and a cooler into the front cab of the truck and as she closed the door she realized that the garage was completely empty. She pulled down the truck's track door and locked it into place. She and Brittany smiled at each other before heading back into the house. They stepped into the living room and everyone got really quiet and stopped what they were doing. Santana shifted side to side, unsure of what to say exactly.

"We have to hit the road soon if we are going to make it there by the time it gets dark." Everyone started to head outside so that they could say goodbye properly and watch the two newly weds actually leave. It basically turned into one big hug session on the front lawn, everyone going between hugging Santana and hugging Brittany. The Glee kids said their goodbyes first, each of them telling their friends how much they are loved and how much they would be missed. Tears had already sprung up, mostly thanks to Kurt and his flair for dramatics, but Santana held it together for most of it that was until she got to the point where she had to say goodbye to her parents, Holly and Quinn.

She gave her brother a hug and they exchanged kind words that were sincere and heartfelt. She gave her dad a big hug that he held onto a little longer than Santana had expected. When he finally let go of Santana he told her how proud he was of her and all the things she was doing. He told her to be careful, make smart choices and to watch her temper. Santana smiled and gave him one more hug before letting her mother wrap her up in a hug that truth be told, felt like she was about to break Santana's ribs.

"My baby isn't a baby anymore. Your father and I are very very proud of you and of Brittany and you better take care of her Santana. And when you have a big fight over there, you apologize to her before it gets out of hand."

"Why do you always think us fighting would be my fault?"

"Because it usually is." Santana rolled her eyes and promised her mother that she would.

"You and Noah take care of each other out there ok, both in North Carolina and wherever else they send you. Mark my words Santana if I have to come out there because your hero complex got you hurt I will be so mad."

"Mama I'm going to be fine, Puck and I will take good care of each other."

"I love you and I want to get phone calls from you, both of you ok."

"Every week and well call you when we get there tomorrow." Santana pulled back and offered her mother a smile and a kiss on the cheek. Angela gave her daughter one more kiss on each cheek and through her tears she repeated herself.

"I love you so much my sweet girl."

"I love you too mama." One more hug between mother and daughter was all that either one of them could handle emotionally. When they let go Angela went and dotted on Brittany for a while, allowing Santana to go over to Holly.

Santana gestured to the truck behind her and smiled. "Pretty far cry from a teenager who didn't know she liked girls huh?"

"You certainly created a pretty amazing life for yourself and for your lovely lady over there."

"Couldn't have done it without you. Even if I said thank you for the rest of my life, I don't think it would ever be enough."

"I thought we established that you don't have to thank me anymore. All the good things that happened in your life, happened because you made them happen Santana. If I had any part of any of it, it was my pleasure I assure you."

"Well thank you all the same. You'll come visit us right?"

"Of course, can't send you off and not come spice up your life on base every now and then." Holly winked at Santana and gave her another hug before allowing Santana to move on to Quinn.

"Told you we would have an audience."

Quinn smiled, "good thing we already said the sappy stuff right?"

"Right. Listen I expect to see your dumb face on my front step soon."

"Miss me already do you?"

"Never." Santana reached into the cab of the truck and handed Quinn a packed envelope. "Look I want you to keep this in a safe place ok. You shouldn't ever need it, but if something ever happens to me you will." Quinn knew better than to protest and she took the envelope from Santana and offered her friend another hug.

"Go kick some ass."

"I could just stay here and kick yours." Santana winked and offered Quinn one more smile that told her that they would be ok. Brittany wrapped up her goodbyes and when they were all out of time Santana helped Brittany into the truck and then climbed into the drivers seat. The truck's engine turned over and they slowly pulled out of the driveway and into the street. Santana knew well enough to not look back, but Brittany watched in the rearview mirror as her friends and family got smaller and smaller until they disappeared totally. Without saying anything Santana took Brittany's hand in her own and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Back at Santana house Quinn and Rachel were about to get in their cars to head home when Rachel asked about the envelope that Santana had given Quinn. Quinn opened it, scanned the documents and almost lost all composure.

"Quinn, baby, what's wrong?"

"It's her will and not just who gets what Rach, everything is in here including funeral arrangements."

"Quinn, my understanding is that this is pretty common practice in military personnel. They have to have the worst case scenario all planned out."

"She left everything to her parents and to us. This makes no sense Rachel, why would she leave Brittany with nothing." Quinn handed Rachel the paperwork and she read over them carefully.

"Quinn, read the last page." Quinn grabbed the papers back and quickly read through the text. "She couldn't leave her life insurance to Brittany because they don't recognize her as next of kin Quinn. She is leaving it to her parents and leaving her soldier's life payout insurance to us so that we can sign it over to Brittany." Quinn shook her head and put the papers back in the envelope.

"She can go to war and defend her country, but she can't leave her wife her life insurance policy. It's not fair Rach."

"You're right it isn't fair, but she found a way to get the money to Brittany anyway and for right now that will have to be enough. Besides this is just in case Quinn, you and I both know that she is going to fight like hell to come home." Quinn nodded her head and quickly put the envelope in her purse promising herself that once they got home she would put in the button of the file cabinet she and Rachel shared and she silently prayed that she would never need to use it.

**Once again sorry for the wait guys, hopefully this was worth it. **


	12. Home Sweet Home

**My apologies for the wait you guys, work has been nuts and I'm wrapping up my first year in my Masters program and the workload is changing and kicking my ass. Thanks for holding in there with me.**

Santana was certain she had never been so happy to see a security gate in her life. They had traded turns behind the wheel, but that didn't make the trip any better: it was still 10 hours on the road and that was hard to handle even though they split the trip over two days. Brittany, of course, found the whole trip very exciting and took pictures of practically everything, which of course meant she had some funny pictures of Santana trying to avoid the camera.

"Britt, do me a favor and hand me the paperwork in the glove box." Brittany put her phone down and grabbed the pack of papers from the glove box and quickly handed them to Santana as they approached the gate. Santana handed the paperwork to the young man at the gate and after looking at it briefly he gave Santana directions on how to get to their housing assignment. Santana carefully maneuvered the truck down the suburban looking street until she found the address marked on the paperwork in front of her. She pull the truck over as far as it would go and put it into park.

"Here we are Britt, home sweet home." Santana jumped out of the cab and went around the side of the truck to help Brittany out. Brittany ran towards the housing unit and stood in front of it as Santana snapped a quick picture.

"Alright Britt, we can take more pictures later, let's get some of this stuff unloaded."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Santana looked at Brittany with a confused glance and shrugged her shoulders.

"This is our first house as a married couple, you have to carry me over the threshold, like in all the old movies." Santana couldn't help but laugh before scooping Brittany up into her arms and walking up the steps. With Santana's hand otherwise busy, Brittany fumbled with the keys and finally got the front door open. Santana carefully stepped into the house, making sure not to knock Brittany into the narrow doorframe.

"Welcome home wife." Brittany giggled and kissed Santana before the brunette set her down. "We should start unloading the truck, I'd like to be able to return the truck today and not get charged for another day."

"I'm gonna call your mom, we promised we would call when we got here."

Santana nodded but still walked outside, "alright, just come join me whenever you're done talking to her." Santana unlocked the back of the truck and stood back trying to get an idea of how she and Brittany would be able to unload a truck that it took a team of people to pack in the first place. Eventually Santana grabbed the suitcases that they loaded last because, well she had to start somewhere. She could hear Brittany inside talking to her mother on the phone so Santana just put the suitcases on the porch and returned to the truck. She quickly swung her duffle bag over her shoulder and picked up one of the smaller boxes, resting it on her shoulder as she turned to walk back toward the house.

"You're in for a long day if you plan on unpacking that rig all by yourself." Santana turned around to see a man standing on the porch of the house next to her own.

"Once my wife gets off the phone she'll be helping, but I doubt that will make it go much faster." The man stood up from his chair and walked down the steps of his porch and over to where Santana was standing.

"Well, what kind of neighbor would I be if I didn't offer you some help?"

"I don't want to impose." Before Santana could really object the man lifted the box off her shoulder and smiled.

"Not an imposition if I offer the help." He followed Santana into the house and put the box in the kitchen before returning outside.

"You know if you are going to help me and be my neighbor, we might want to introduce ourselves." The man smiled again and held out his hand, "Jacob Miller, everyone calls me Jake though."

Santana held out her hand and shook his, "Lt. Santana Lopez, nice to meet you."

"Ah, so you're the new Lt. they brought in from West Point."

"One of them, my best friend is driving here as we speak and he is the other one."

"You two become friends at West Point?"

"No, we've known each other for years before that, but we went to West Point together and now here we are."

"And your wife?"

"Britt and I have known each other since we were born, literally our moms were in the same hospital room and they got close and we were born within days of each other."

"So you two were meant to be then?" Jake had a goofy grin on his face and Santana had to smile.

"That is the fairytale way of looking at it yeah." The two of them started to take some of the larger boxes down and kept talking about little things in an effort to get to know each other. Brittany eventually appeared with her cell phone in her hand.

"Your mom wants to hear your voice." Brittany tossed the phone to Santana who jumped down out of the truck to talk to her mother, leaving Brittany with Jake.

"I'm impressed Santana let someone else help her, but thank you. I'm Brittany." Brittany held out her hand and Jake took it, "Jacob Miller, call me Jake. And she didn't really let me help, more like I saw the moving van next door and forced my help on her before she could object."

"Well thank you regardless, we really want to get this thing unloaded before we have to pay for an extra day with the truck."

"We went through the same thing when we moved out here."

"So you're married?"

"Yep, actually it's my wife who is in the army."

"Guess that means that you and I will be seeing a lot of each other then."

"More than you probably realize…my wife is actually your wife's Sergeant."

"I have no idea what that means." Jake smiled as he picked up and stack of several boxes and moved them to the porch. "It means that my wife and yours are going to be working together to help your wife led the company. You pick up on all of the military workings the longer you live it, you'll catch on pretty quickly." Santana came back out to the truck and put Brittany phone back in her wife's pocket.

"So what'd I miss?"

"Just filling Brittany in on the inner workings of being a military spouse. I had to figure it out myself so I figure I could offer my extensive knowledge to a rookie."

"We appreciate that, work starts for me first thing tomorrow and I don't really have time to sit down with her a figure a lot of this stuff out."

"No worries, I'll fill her in while you and my wife are at formation."

"Your wife?"

"Sergeant Miller."

"Your wife is in my platoon and we're neighbors, looks like we don't have much of a choice but to become friends."

"I look forward to that ma'am." A new, feminine voice echoed from door of the truck. Santana turned around with boxes in her arms to see a woman about her height in a grey Army tshirt and jogging gear.

"Sergeant Miller I presume." Santana set the boxes down and got down out of the truck.

"At your service ma'am." She offered Santana quick salute that Santana returned before holding out her hand. "But considering we aren't at work at the moment ma'am, my name is Jennifer."

"Santana." Santana shook her hand and then pointed over to Brittany, "and that is my wife Brittany." Brittany went over and shook Jennifer's hand.

"Nice to finally meet you, our XO has been singing your praises since you got assigned to Fort Bragg."

"I only hope I can live up to expectations, I mean hell, I can't even unload a moving truck without reinforcements."

"With all due respect ma'am moving is the biggest pain in the ass ever, we needed help when we moved here as well so I'm glad my husband was home to lend a hand. I can help you move those bigger piece of furniture if you'd like." As Jake and Brittany got the last of the boxes situated in the house the two women went about trying to get the last of the furniture out of the truck. As Santana and Jennifer set to work trying to get the dresser on the dolly, Brittany and Jake went inside to get water for everybody and to let Brittany change into something more comfortable for the current weather they were working in. As they finally got the dresser out of the truck Santana was trying desperately to get the damn thing up on the sidewalk, but all she was doing was getting it off balance to the point where it actual began to fall. She had expected to hear the wooden dresser shattering into timber wood, but instead she heard another voice.

"You have the center of gravity off balance, that's why it keeps falling." With the mysterious third person now helping they were able to get the dresser up the sidewalk and into the living room where Santana was sure she could move it on her own later. She turned the stranger that helped them.

"Thank you for catching it before it fell, last thing I need is to go buy a new dresser because I can't balance the one I already have."

"No problem, we were on our way over here anyway."

"We?" Santana looked confused, but the man in her living room pointed outside to the front yard where Santana saw to other women standing with a mix of things in their arms. Santana followed the man back outside and yelled back into the house that they had company.

"We don't mean to slow down your process, but we wanted to swing by and drop off some welcome to the base gifts and see if we could be any help."

"That's very nice of you thank you." Santana took the box out of one of the women's arms and Jennifer offered to take it into the house.

"Not to sound rude, but who are you guys and how did you know we were moving in today."

"Sorry, my manners temporarily went away." The man who helped them with the dresser extended his hand to Santana, "I'm Andrew and these two ladies are Cara and Leslie. We all volunteer with the FRG and actually Leslie over here heads the one on this base." All of a sudden Santana remembered the name that she had seen on several emails she had dealt with as they got ready to move.

"You sent a bunch of emails last week about moving and packing and all that…I'm sorry I didn't recognize the name straight away, it's been a long day." Santana shook the older woman's hand as she apologized.

"Think nothing of it, moving is stressful enough as it is, we're just here to make the transition easier. There is a packet in that box we gave you that can be of some help as you get used to things on base. Lots of info for your spouse as well."

"Thank you, I know we'll both need it." Santana took a step back and yelled into the house, "Britt, baby come out here for a minute." Brittany came out of the house, this time dressed in a t-shirt that she had cut in half years ago so that her stomach was exposed. Santana was a little surprised at her wife's choice in outfits because that shirt did nothing to hide the GSW scar that Brittany was usually pretty uncomfortable with showing off, especially in front of new people who didn't know how she got it. Santana let it go for the moment and introduced Brittany to the new people standing on their lawn.

"It's really nice to meet all of you." She turned back to Santana, "Puck just called, says he's about 3 hours out with your car and he said he'll meet us at the truck drop off place and then we can get dinner out there ok?"

"Call him back and tell him that my car better be on one piece with a full thing of gas when it get here." Brittany kissed Santana on the cheek before excusing herself to go make the phone call. Santana could see a confused expressions on the faces of her new gathering of army friends and she knew it was better for her to handle it now than later.

"You can go ahead and ask the question." Andrew shook his head, "it's none of our business really."

"It happened when we were in high school. If you look up a school shooting in Lima, Ohio our names will come up and so will some pretty grisly pictures. The shooter was about to shoot our best friend and Brittany pushed her away, took the bullet instead. She was in a coma for weeks afterwards and they were about 70% sure that she was going to die. She'll tell you the rest of the story if you ask her, but I'd wait until she knows you better." Santana rattled off the explanation like she had done it a thousand times before, which she pretty much had so it had become as effortless as breathing.

"Santana we didn't mean to make you feel like you had to say anything."

"You didn't, but you seem like nice people and considering you'll be around my wife when I'm not here, I figured you deserved to know at least that much."

"Well, we appreciate the honesty, seems like you two have already been through a lot considering how young you are."

"Yeah, well I figured if we were strong enough to survive that nightmare we can handle being an Army family. Speaking of which I need to get the rest of that truck unpacked to go meet my friend who is driving my car here for us."

"He's the other Lt. right?"

"Correct, he left a few hours after we did the other day, but he took a detour which is his way of saying he got lost so he got a few hours behind us."

"Need any help with the last of the furniture?" Santana looked in the truck and all that was left was the bed and some small pieces of furniture.

"I think we got it, but thank you for coming over and introducing yourselves. I assuming you'll all be at the banquet tomorrow night?"

"Of course, are you ready for your first fancy Army gathering?"

"Ready? No. Excited, absolutely. I think it'll just take a few days to get used to things, but West Point prepared me well."

"I don't doubt it. Well, my number is in that packet we gave you so if you two have an questions, give me a call."

"Thank you ma'am. It was nice to meet all of you." The small group of welcome wagon people left and Santana was confident that they seemed like kind people and if nothing else leaving for deployments would be less painful knowing that good people would be on base to support Brittany. Santana made quick work of the last items on the truck and eventually it was empty. Santana ran inside and while Jennifer and Jake talked with Brittany as she unpacked the kitchen Santana showered and changed into her uniform. She came to join the group in the kitchen and was pleasantly surprised to see that Brittany had already poured her a beer.

"Thanks baby." Santana kissed Brittany before grabbing the seat next to her.

"So what have I missed, have you told them our life story already?"

"No, just the abridged version."

"We know enough for me to have decided that I am going to call you Ohio instead of your real name." Jake smiled and took a swig of his beer and Jennifer hit her shoulder.

"My apologies ma'am, he's a good person I swear."

"He can call me whatever he wants, technically speaking you're the only one who has to call me anything official."

"Understood ma'am."

"But when we are drinking beer in my house you can drop the ma'am stuff and use my name." Santana smiled at her sergeant and the women nodded her head.

"Good, now how about you guys join us for dinner, our treat?"

"I thought you were meeting your friend?"

"We are, but then we want to grab dinner and I know nothing about what food is near here, but I am guessing that you do."

"You sure you don't want to spend your first night here having dinner alone?"

"Positive, besides Puck will already be joining us, I might as well make it a party."

"Well, when you put it that, how can we say no. There is this awesome seafood place just off base, tasty shrimp and cold beer."

"Sounds good to me. Puck will be here in about two hours so if you guys want to meet us back over here abound 5:30 we can head out."

"Works for us." Santana and Brittany followed the couple out and before Santana forgot she asked Jake if he could take a picture of her and Brittany in front of their new home. He took Santana's phone and took a few shots of the happy couple as they stood with Santana's arms wrapped around Brittany, both of them beaming. Jake handed the phone back to Santana and they said they would see them again in about an hour. Santana and Brittany went back into the house and tried to unpack a few boxes, but before they got into it Santana was sure to send the picture to her parents and their glee club friends. Santana was glad that they had met some nice people within minutes of arriving on base, but she also missed her friends at home and if nothing else she wanted them to know that she and Brittany were save and sound in their new home.

Back in New York, Quinn and Rachel had made it back to their apartment and while they were both tired from their trip home to Lima to see their friends off, they were glad they made the trip. Rachel had already collapsed on the bed, completely drained from the goodbyes and the traveling and Quinn decided that she needed a shower before she gave up and passed out. Once she was finally ready for bed she climbed into bed with still slightly wet hair and Rachel quickly snuggled into her side. Just as she was about to shut off the light her phone buzzed with a text message. Quinn opened it and smiled.

"What is it?" Rachel muttered in her half awake state.

"Nothing, just Santana sending me a picture of them at the house, looks like they finally got unpacked and settled in." Quinn showed the picture to Rachel.

"They look happy Quinn." Quinn sighed heavily and smiled before putting her phone down on the table and shutting off the light.

"They certainly do." That was the last thing Quinn said before letting sleep take over her body.

**Again my apologies for the delay in updating, but you have it now and hopefully you all like it. Leave me a review if the mood strikes you.**


	13. This Is Not A Game

**Sorry for the wait everyone, I just wrapped up my first year of my Masters degree and things got really busy at the end. Thank you for sticking with me and enjoy your fourth of July…even if it's not your Independence day, just have a good day in general.**

The next morning Brittany woke up to find Santana already missing from the spot next to her in their bed. Brittany could hear Santana moving around in the kitchen so she threw on her robe and went in search of her wife. Santana was already dressed and was thumbing through paperwork while trying to down coffee at the same time.

"Thought you were gonna sneak out without kissing me goodbye." Santana looked up from her work and smiled.

"Never would have happened." Brittany leaned over and kissed Santana before pouring herself some of the coffee Santana had made.

"I will be home around 3 this afternoon, we have to be ready to leave for the dinner tonight no later than 5. So if you can be showered and all that then we won't have to fight over the shower or bathroom when I come home."

"I think I can manage that. What should I be wearing to this anyway?"

"It's a formal event so I would start looking through the boxes that have your formal wear in it." Santana looked at the clock and finished her coffee before standing up from the table. "Gotta go, but I will see you later. Don't forget to go sort our your base ID, Jake said he would go with you to help explain the paperwork, apparently it can be a bit of a nightmare." Santana grabbed her gear and kissed Brittany, "love you."

"Love you too, play nice with the other kids." Brittany laughed at her own joke as Santana walked out of the house. Standing on her own front porch was Jennifer who quickly joined Santana in front of her car.

"Morning Lieutenant."

"Morning Sergeant."

"All ready for your first day ma'am?"

"Well I'd like to think so. Any advice on how to go about introductions?"

"They have a lot of potential ma'am."

"Why does that sound like a warning more than anything else?"

"They are young ma'am, only a few of them are seasoned soldiers, the rest are all freshly enlisted."

"And what about Puck's platoon?"

"My understanding ma'am is that Lieutenant Puckerman has a very similar situation."

"Brilliant."

"If I may ma'am, I think that's why you and Lieutenant Puckerman were assigned to these two platoons. They are young recruits who need strong leadership and it doesn't get any stronger than two recent West Point graduates."

"Any words of advice on that front?"

"Think of it this way ma'am, your favorite commanding officers, what was it that you liked about them?"

"They scared me, but then they ended up teaching me more than I ever thought possible."

"They respected you?"

"Absolutely, if you showed respect you got it."

"I would start with that ma'am. They could use someone to scare them a little. It's your job to tear them down and build them back up as a unit. First step, in doing that is respect." At that moment Santana pulled into a parking spot and could already see Puck standing near by waiting for her.

"You ready for this Sergeant?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good…me neither." Santana smiled and exited the car with Jennifer on her tail. Puck looked up from where he was standing and smiled at his friend.

"It's like the first day of school all over."

"Just don't try to steal my lunch money and this time it won't end with you having a bloody nose." Puck turned to Jennifer who had been standing at attention, saluting him since he first addressed Santana.

"At ease Sergeant." Puck returned the salute.

"Nice to see you again Lt. Puckerman."

"Likewise Sergeant. You two ready for this?"

"Who are you kidding I was born ready." The two best friends walked on ahead while Jennifer and Puck's Sergeant trailed a few steps behind their respective Lt. They rounded a corner and when they did Santana realized that Jennifer wasn't kidding about the age of the soldiers she had been assigned to lead. They all looked like they were barely old enough to do their own laundry, let alone be in the military. Jennifer and the other Sergeant walked ahead of Puck and Santana and started shouting orders as the higher ranked officers approached the group and by the time they were standing in front of the two platoons they were all standing at attention.

"Well, you all can stand in a straight line so we are already off to a good start this morning. At ease." Santana instructed and half the group relaxed their stance and Puck realized that he was going to have to mimic Santana in order to get his platoon to stand down. Once they all had their arms at their sides Santana spoke again.

"Good morning everyone. Before we get underway today, I feel as though introductions are in order. I know you probably have heard about the new West Point Lieutenants that arrived fresh off the plane, but all things considered I make my own entrance. My name is Lt. Santana Lopez and the soldier to my left is Lt. Puckerman. While I am in command of alpha company and Lt. Puckerman is in command of bravo company, we will be running almost all of our exercises as a joint company. What that means is this, if I tell you to do something you do it, if Lt. Puckerman tells you to do something you do it. Understood." They all responded yes Lieutenant and Santana continued.

"I don't care if you are standing next to your best friend or your worst enemy, you will train together and by the time we get orders you will have learned how to work as a team. I have three rules that you will all learn right now and I suggest you never forget. Number one: Respect is a two way street. If you want my respect, I expect yours in return. Number two: I am not your mother. It is not my job to coddle you, it is my job to train you and I will not fail at my job. Whether or not you fail or succeed at yours is entirely up to you. And Number three: I will not tolerate any bullying from any of you. Let me clarify that; you are all adults, act like it. This is the Army and while I expect you all to push each other, keep it clean and be respectful. If I hear you call each other 'ladies' or use the word gay instead of saying stupid, I will have you running around this base until you pass out. You are standing shoulder to shoulder with young men and young women so I see no reason that you would need to use the female gender as an insult. And whether you choose to believe it or not you are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with gay soldiers as well. You all signed the same piece of paper and took the same oath so I could care less how you live your life once you leave at the end of the day, because you are all soldiers. Any questions."

"No Lieutenant." They all shouted.

"Beautiful. Lieutenant Puckerman anything you would like to add?"

Puck stepped up and walked up and down each row of soldiers.

"Unlike Lieutenant Lopez here, I have only one rule, but you will follow it just as you will follow hers and it is this: this is the US Army boys and girls, this is not a video game. You can laugh all you want, but let me repeat myself." Puck got in the face of a young man who had laughed at his comment.

"Repeat what I just said Private."

"Sir, you said that this is the US Army, not a video game, sir."

"Outstanding. This is not a video game. This is not Call or Duty or anything else you ever played. This is real life. There is no restart button, you can't pause this when things get too real and when somebody dies, that's it. We don't have second lives on the battlefield and this is not a game. You weapon is not a toy, your gear doesn't make you invincible and the only thing you can count of for sure is the person standing next to you. This isn't a game so do not treat it like one, am I clear?"

"Yes Lieutenant."

"Beautiful. Sergeant Miller the floor is yours." Jennifer took over explaining the training drill for the day and after explaining that the group had 20 minutes to saddle up and get their gear together they were dismissed to go prepare. Santana and Puck put on their own gear as they talked.

"How long have you been waiting to bust out the video game speech?"

"Since I had to run 5 miles in the heat for making a Call of Duty joke at West Point."

"Never thought I would see the day that Noah Puckerman grew up into a badass."

"Well get used to it, because this bad ass is going to beat your times in this exercise today."

"If this was a dream, maybe you stood a chance." Santana started to walk away and Puck ran after. "Care to wager on that Lopez?"

"Loser buys drinks this weekend?"

"Agreed."

"Fabulous, now buckle up Puckerman, it's gonna be a long day for you."

**Next I will do Britt and combine that with the fancy Army dinner so stay tuned.**


End file.
